Segregation
/ˌsɛɡ.rəˈɡeɪ.ʃən/noun
The act or practice of separating people or things from others.
Did you know?Segregation comes from Latin segregare, built from se- (“apart”) + greg- (“flock”), so its oldest sense was literally to drive something away from the herd.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ger-
“to gather, collect, or drive together”
Latin
Latin
grex, gregis
“a flock or herd”
Latin
Latin
segregare
“to set apart from the flock; separate”
Late Latin
Latin
segregatio
“a separating or setting apart”
14th Century
English
segregacioun
“the act of separating or dividing”
Modern English
English
segregation
“the enforced separation of groups or the state of being separated”
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