demarcate

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The Word of the Day for July 14 is:

demarcate   \dih-MAR-kayt\   verb 
    *1 : to mark the limits of : delimit 
      2 : to set apart : separate 

Example sentence: 
     The large map on the wall of campaign headquarters was marked with red 
lines demarcating all of the voting districts in the city.

Did you know? 
     "Demarcate" is set apart by its unique history. Scholars think it may have 
descended from the Italian verb "marcare" ("to mark"), which is itself of 
Germanic origin (the Old High German word for boundary, "marha," is a 
relative). "Marcare" is the probable source of the Spanish "marcar" (also "to 
mark"), from which comes the Spanish "demarcar" ("to fix the boundary of"). In 
1493, a Spanish noun, "demarcacion," was used to name the new meridian dividing 
New World territory between Spain and Portugal. Later (about 1730), English 
speakers began calling this boundary the "line of demarcation," and eventually 
we began applying that phrase to other dividing lines as well. "Demarcation" in 
turn gave rise to "demarcate" in the early 19th century. 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.