mi-parti
/ˌmipɑɹˈti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.76 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Clothing vertically divided into two distinctly-coloured or patterned halves; (countable) an individual garment of this type.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "They are all parted per pale, or (to vſe [Jean] Scohiers vvord) mi-partie, that is, parted longvviſe in the midſt, or perpendicularly parted, but yet ſeuerally affected in the partings […]"
- "The new German Imperial flag has just been decided upon, and is adopted already by Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Baden. It is mi-partie or, sable, gules, and argent, and has for supporters the two Indians armed with maces of the Prussian crest."
- "The extreme uncertainty of engraving the horizontal line of division in shields makes it quite reasonable to suppose the division which we see in Panwitz to have been made to look mi-parti in error. […] I have to add that I have found, […] an example of mi-parti in England. […] The shield was—Coupé, chief mi-parti sable and argent; in dexter side a flower of four leaves, gules and argent; in sinister a quatrefoil, or and sable; the base sable, a quatrefoil."
- "Almost all the indoor servants were given three ells of coloured shortcloth, together with three ells of striped cloth for their suits, which must have been, therefore, mi-parti."
- "All the colors of the Universe radiate off the walls and floor of this room. The being here is dressed in a miparti …"
- "This person is beardless and dressed in a long cloak divided down the middle into two colours, red and blue, and fastened by a belt. […] [H]e has been thought to be a Latin donor, because the coat of two colours (mi-parti) would have been worn by western pilgrims coming to the Holy Land as a sign of their submission to God. Another interpretation rightly refutes any symbolic hypothesis of the wearing of the mi-parti. It was certainly of western origin, but had also been adopted in the East; and whereas in the West the mi-parti had by the middle of the thirteenth century become the clothing of servants and squires, in the East it was instead worn by wealthy people, such as those who had the means to order monumental decorations and to be represented in them."
Etymology
The adjective is a learned borrowing from French mi-parti (literally “divided down the middle”), from Middle French mi-parti, from Old French mi-parti, an adjective use of the past participle of mi-partir (“to split in half”), from mi- (prefix meaning ‘half’) + partir (“to divide up”): * Mi- is from Middle French mi (“middle”), from Old French mi, mie (“middle”), ultimately from Latin medius (“half; in the centre, midway between”, adjective) and medium (“centre, middle”, noun), and from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”, adjective). Compare medial. * Partir is from Latin partīre, the present active infinitive of partiō (“to apportion, divide”), from pars (“part, portion”, noun) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go or pass through”) or *perh₂- (“to sell”)) + -iō (suffix forming fourth-conjugation verbs). Compare party (“divided”). Though the term is mentioned beginning in the 17th century, actual use is apparently mostly recorded from the 19th century onwards (but see the 1610 quotation). The noun is derived from the adjective.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌmipɑɹˈti/
- British English: /miːpɑːˈtiː/