Other forms: disintegrated, disintegrating, disintegrates
To disintegrate is to fall apart into pieces. The rock disintegrated, disintegrating slowly, it disintegrated on impact.
It means coming apart into small pieces rather than breaking in two, which is why it suits erosion, re-entry and old paper. Figuratively an argument, a marriage or a state can disintegrate. Note that the word is dis- plus integrate, from the Latin for untouched — so to disintegrate is to lose wholeness.
1verbdisintegrateTo fall apart into pieces.
“The old letters were so fragile that they almost disintegrated when I touched them.”
disintegrate is a falling apart.
Dis- plus integrate, from Latin integer, whole or untouched. Integer, entire and integrity come from the same wholeness.
Latin
integrātus
Middle English
integrat — intact, whole
English
integrate
English, today
disintegrate
Built from
Recorded since 1785, from dis- + integrate. integrate 1450's as an adjective, 1638 as a verb; from Middle English integrat (“intact, whole”), borrowed from Latin integrātus, perfect passive participle of integrō (“to make whole, renew, repair, begin again”) (see -ate and -ate), from integer (“whole, fresh”) + -ō. See integer and integral.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA