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demarcation

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: démarcation

English

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Alternative forms

Etymology

First recorded c.1752, from Spanish línea de demarcación and/or Portuguese linha de demarcação, the demarcation line laid down by the Pope on May 4, 1493, dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal on a line 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Both derive from demarcar, from de- + marcar (“to mark”), from Italian marcare, from the same Germanic root as march.

Pronunciation

Noun

demarcation (countable and uncountable, plural demarcations)

  1. The act of marking off a boundary or setting a limit, notably by belligerents signing a treaty or ceasefire.
  2. A limit thus fixed, in full demarcation line.
    • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 48–49:
      About sunset, he was leaning on the remains of an old wall, which had once probably surrounded a Roman encampment, and now served as a line of demarcation between two villages, as jealous of each other's claims as near neighbours usually are.
  3. Any strictly defined separation.
    There is an alleged, in fact somewhat artificial demarcation in the type of work done by members of different trade unions.
    • 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 7:
      In the sea there is no demarcation between the hunter and the hunted, as there is on the African plains.
    • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species:
      Certainly no clear line of demarcation has as yet been drawn between species and sub-species—that is, the forms which in the opinion of some naturalists come very near to, but do not quite arrive at the rank of species; or, again, between sub-species and well-marked varieties, or between lesser varieties and individual differences. These differences blend into each other in an insensible series; and a series impresses the mind with the idea of an actual passage.

Derived terms

Translations

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