Departed

How to spell departed

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce departed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does departed mean?

1. verbPast tense of depart: went away or left a place.

Departed in a sentence

• The morning flight departed on time despite the fog.

• The guests departed shortly after the speeches ended.

Where does departed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb partire, meaning 'to divide' or 'to separate into parts', which itself rests on pars, the noun for a 'part' or 'portion'. Combined with the prefix de-, carrying the sense of 'away from', the idea was of separating oneself and moving away. English took it through Old French departir during the medieval period, when it could mean both 'to divide up' and 'to go away'. Over the centuries the dividing sense faded and the 'going away' sense won out, which is why a train now 'departs' rather than splits anything. The gentle, softened sense of 'departed' for someone who has died grew from the same root, picturing the dead as having simply left; the spelling keeps the single t of 'part' before the regular -ed ending.

How the word is built

• de- (away, from)
• part (from Latin partire, to divide or separate)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)