Word of the Day

: February 5, 2008

scission

noun SIZH-un

What It Means

1 : a division or split in a group or union : schism

2 : an action or process of cutting, dividing, or splitting : the state of being cut, divided, or split

scission in Context

Despite the bitter scissions that divided their party, the Republicans dominated the state's political scene throughout the 1990s.

Did You Know?

You may suspect that a connection exists between "scission" and "scissors," but, actually, their etymologies are sharply divided. "Scission" traces to the Latin verb "scindere" ("to split" or "to cut"). "Scissors," on the other hand, comes from an entirely separate Latin verb that also means "to cut" -- "caedere." The Middle English word for the cutting instrument was "cisours" or "sisoures," which comes from Middle French "cisoires." An "sc" spelling appeared only in the 16th century when, apparently, the word for the cutting instrument was mistakenly taken to have derived, like "scission," from "scindere."