Into separate pieces or parts; completely apart from one another.
From Old English 'a sunder,' where 'a-' is a prefix indicating motion and 'sunder' comes from Proto-Germanic meaning 'to separate or cut apart.' It literally means 'into sundered (separated) pieces.'
The word 'asunder' sounds so dramatic and final that Shakespeare loved it—when something is torn asunder, it's not just broken, it's violently ripped apart in a way that can never be quite the same, which is why the phrase 'what God has joined together let no man put asunder' is so powerful!
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