different between crevasse vs separation

English

Etymology

From French crevasse. Doublet of crevice.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æs
• IPA^(key): /k???væs/

Noun

crevasse (plural crevasses)

1. A crack or fissure in a glacier or snowfield; a chasm.
2. (US) A breach in a canal or river bank.
3. (by extension) Any cleft or fissure.
   • 2010, Scott R. Riley, A Lost Hero Found (page 111)

     I moved my left hand to the small of her back, just above her belt-line and stroked the peach fuzz in her crevasse with my fingers.

4. (figuratively) A discontinuity or “gap” between the accounted variables and an observed outcome.
   • 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 105 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     […] he laments that he can find no physiological phenomenon answering to his subject’s winning a race, or losing it. Between his terminal output of energy and his victory or defeat there is a mysterious crevasse. Physiology is baffled.

Translations

Verb

crevasse (third-person singular simple present crevasses, present participle crevassing, simple past and past participle crevassed)

1. (intransitive) To form crevasses.
2. (transitive) To fissure with crevasses.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.vas/
• Rhymes: -as

Etymology 1

Old French crevace, crever +? -asse

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. crevasse

Etymology 2

Inflected forms

Verb

crevasse

1. first-person singular imperfect subjunctive of crever

Further reading

• “crevasse” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• crevassa (dated)

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. (glaciology) crevasse (a crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field)

English

Etymology

Attested in the 15th Century C.E.; borrowed from Old French separacion, from Latin separatio, separationem.Morphologically separate +? -ion

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?p???e???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

separation (countable and uncountable, plural separations)

1. The act of disuniting two or more things, or the condition of being separated.

   Synonyms: detachment, disjunction, division, rupture, severance; see also Thesaurus:separation

   Antonyms: annexation, combination, unification; see also Thesaurus:junction

2. The act or condition of two or more people being separated from one another.
3. The act or condition of a married couple living in separate homes while remaining legally married.
   1. (law) An agreement legalizing such an arrangement.

      Synonym: divorce from bed and board
4. The place at which a division occurs.

   Synonyms: border, boundary, demarcation
5. An interval, gap or space that separates things or people.

   Synonyms: break, interstice; see also Thesaurus:interspace
6. An object that separates two spaces.

   Synonyms: barrier, separator
7. (military) Departure from active duty, while not necessarily leaving the service entirely.

Derived terms

See also

• division
• fission

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “separation”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• antioperas, asperation