The article analyzes the semantics, usage and stylistic features of Russian and Bulgarian derivatives from the common Slavic roots děl-, lǫč- and sta- denoting different aspects of the separation of people. The author’s goal is to identify shared and distinct features in the micro-thematic lexical groups and the potential of each of the three roots in the two languages. The investigation is founded on lexicographic, folklore and ethnographic data. The analysis shows that the languages differ in terms of the neutral hyperonym denoting separation (Bulgarian разделям се, Russian расставаться), the internal grammatical asymmetry of the Russian verbs расставаться – *расставать, the richer choice of suffixes used in Russian, etc. The two languages share the poetical markedness of the words разлъка / разлука, richness of the lexis denoting the separation of lovers or spouses, etc. Keywords: contrastive analysis, ethnolinguistics, lexis denoting separation, Bulgarian language, Russian language