Rending

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of tearing something into pieces with great force
2. The process of violently splitting or ripping something apart
3. The action of breaking or pulling something into parts in a forceful way

Etymology: Long before "rending" described a violent tearing apart, the Old English verb "rendan" meant "to tear, cut, lacerate, cut down," and it was a blunt, physical word for ripping things. It came into Middle English as "renden," and the verb has stayed close to that original force ever since. The more intriguing twist lies in where it might come from. The root is thought by some scholars to be a causative form of "hrindan," an Old English verb meaning "to thrust or push." If that link holds, a word now associated with ripping cloth or flesh would have started out as a way of making something be pushed, a sense that tilts toward forcing things apart. The origin remains uncertain, though, and the connection is only a proposal. Its closest relatives show the same tearing sense. Scots "rent" and Old Frisian "renda" both mean "to tear," which suggests the word was already doing this job among the early Germanic languages.

Synonyms: tearing, splitting, ripping, shredding, lacerating