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separatist

UK/ˈsɛpəɹətɪst/US/ˈsɛpəɹətɪst/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,348 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: separatists

A separatist is somebody who wants their region to break away. Separatist movement, armed separatists, a separatist party.

The word is contested — the same person is a separatist to the state and a nationalist or an independence campaigner to themselves. Some movements are entirely peaceful and win referendums. The -ist ending names the holder of a position.

Definitions of separatist

  1. 1nounseparatistSomebody who wants their region to break away.C1

    “The separatists held a vote on independence that the national government refused to recognise.”

separatist is a person.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *per- — produce, procure, bring forward, bring forth

  2. Latin

    sēparātus

  3. Middle English

    separaten — to separate

  4. English

    separate

  5. English, today

    separatist

Built from

  • sēparō · Latin — to separate

From separate + -ist. separate comes from Middle English separaten (“to separate”), from separat + -en, from Latin sēparātus, perfect passive participle of sēparō (“to separate”) (see -ate), from sē- + parō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European per- (“produce, procure, bring forward, bring forth”). Displaced Middle English scheden, from Old English scēadan (whence English shed). Doublet of sever, also derived from the same Latin verb.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

separatist in the wild

  • Groups simply seeking greater autonomy are usually not considered separatists.

    Separatism

  • However, economic and political factors usually are critical in creating strong separatist movements as opposed to less ambitious identity movements.

    Separatism

  • There were a total of 255 black separatist groups recorded in the United States as of 2019.

    Black separatism

  • Additionally, black separatists often seek to return to their original cultural homeland of Africa.

    Black separatism

  • Many separatist movements arise as a result of religious, racial, social, and cultural disparities between certain peoples and the majority or ruling class in a country.

    List of active separatist movements in Asia

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the sēparō family

separate

separatist — used about once every 20,553 pages · #13,348 · point at the bar for the others

  • separation