Well "séparer" means just "disjoin", "split up" etc. There are few meanings for "séparation" in french. For exemple "séparer par des fonctions". If you have a space $X$ and a set of functions ${\cal F}$ from $X$ to ${\bf R}$ (or anything else), you say that "${\cal F}$ sépare les points de $X$" iff for two different point $x$ and $x'$ there exists a function $f \in {\cal F}$ such that $f(x) \neq f(x')$, this is a common use of the word séparer in french, nothing mysterious. And this vocabulary can be applied to any comparable situation, in topology etc... I heard the first time this wording (when I was a student) in the case I mention above, long before I have heard using this wording in a topology course.

Well "séparer" means just "disjoin", "split up" etc. There are few meanings for "séparation" in french. For exemple "séparer par des fonctions". If you have a space $X$ and a set of functions ${\cal F}$ from $X$ to ${\bf R}$ (or anything else), you say that "${\cal F}$ sépare les points de $X$" iff for two different point $x$ and $x'$ there exists a function $f \in {\cal F}$ such that $f(x) \neq f(x')$, this is a common use of the word "séparer" in french, nothing mysterious. And this vocabulary can be applied to any analogous situations, in topology or whatever else context. I heard the first time this wording (when I was a student) in the case I mention above, long before I have heard using this wording in a topology course.