Depart

How to spell depart

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce depart

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does depart mean?

1. verbTo leave a place, especially at the start of a journey.
2. verbTo differ or move away from an established course, rule, or expectation.

Depart in a sentence

• The early train will depart from platform nine.

• The committee chose not to depart from the original plan.

• Guests must depart the hotel before noon on the final day.

• His account did depart from the version given by other witnesses.

Where does depart come from?

Language of origin: French

This word arrived in English in the 1200s from the Old French departir, which originally meant 'to divide' or 'to separate' before it came to mean 'to go away'. The French verb was built from the Latin prefix de-, meaning 'away from', and partire, meaning 'to divide' or 'to share', which itself comes from pars, the Latin word for 'a part'. The earliest English sense matched the original idea of dividing or separating, which is why the old marriage vow once read 'till death us depart', meaning 'till death us do part'. Over time the everyday meaning narrowed to the act of leaving a place, while the older division sense survived in relatives such as 'part', 'partition' and 'portion'. The single -p- and the plain -art ending rarely trip writers up, since the word keeps its visible link to the familiar word 'part'.

How the word is built

• de- (away, from)
• part (from Old French partir: to go away, divide)