Bipartisan

How to spell bipartisan

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce bipartisan

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bipartisan mean?

1. adjectiveInvolving or supported by two opposing political parties working in agreement.

Bipartisan in a sentence

• The budget passed with rare bipartisan support in the chamber.

• A bipartisan committee was formed to review the election rules.

Where does bipartisan come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word breaks into the Latin prefix bi-, meaning 'two', joined to 'partisan', a noun for a devoted supporter of a party or cause. 'Partisan' came into English in the 1500s from the Italian partigiano, literally 'a member of a part or faction', which traces back to the Latin pars, partis meaning 'a part' or 'a side'. So at root a partisan is someone who takes one side, and adding bi- flips the meaning to cooperation across two sides at once. The political sense of 'bipartisan', describing agreement or support drawn from two opposing parties, grew up mainly in American government usage in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The spelling trap lives in the middle: a single 's' (not a double), and the unstressed vowels in 'par-ti-san' that the ear cannot place reliably.

How the word is built

• bi- (two)
• partisan (a committed supporter of a party, from Italian partigiano)