fissipation

English

Noun

fissipation (uncountable)

1. (biology) Reproduction by fission; fissiparism.
   • 1843 August 12, Ph. B. Ayres, “Theory of Generation”, in The Lancet, volume 2, page 738:

     Fissipation, being the simple division of an organised being, requires no organs of reproduction.

2. The act or process of splitting apart; division into smaller parts.
   • 2003, Ian Douglas, Richard John Hugget, Companion Encyclopedia of Geography, page 212:

     The re-emergence of empire was thwarted by immense topographical variety, coastal confolutions, and wide-openness to the east, which made Christendom difficult to organize and defend as a whole from Viking, barbarian and Islamic attacks round its perimeter; by natural temperateness, which rendered large-scale disasters needing widespread rescue of populations rare (Jones 1981); and by the very devolved political system represented by feudalism, which encouraged the fissipation of whatever larger units did develop.

   • 2012, Anja Osei, Party-Voter Linkage in Africa, page 78:

     Had there been a consolidated nationhood in all African states at this time, this declaration would not have been of such relevance. The danger of fissipation was real and explains why the nationalist elite placed such priority on the project of imagining the nation.

   • 2021, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam:

     As a student of the history of religions I find fascinating the development of Moorish apocrypha and fissipation into subsects, each with different orally transmitted stories.