converge

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin convergō (“to incline together”), a verb used by Isidore,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin com- (“together”) and vergō (“to bend, turn, incline”).^[2][7][4][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls the source Medieval Latin.^[9] The Latin verb comes from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”),^[7][5] and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate it to wrench.^[4][9] The noun convergence (1713) and the adjective convergent (1727–51, in Chambers's “Cyclopaedia”) followed, the first formed in English and the second from the Latin present participle.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To tend to meet in one point, as lines do: before 1687, in William Petty's Treatise of Naval Philosophy.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the verb to 1691,^[4][9] and Etymonline to the 1690s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of geometry and optics.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as tending to one point from different places, and illustrated it with a passage from Newton's Opticks on rays made to converge by reflection or refraction.^[10] In mathematics an infinite series has been said to converge since 1796, in Hutton's dictionary.^[2] A transitive use, to make lines or rays come together, appears before 1774,^[2] and the figurative sense, to tend towards a common result, in 1837.^[2] Today the verb is used of people or things moving towards the same place, and of opinions or effects tending to one conclusion;^[11][9] in biology, of unrelated animals and plants that come to resemble each other in evolution.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1687 – intransitive, to tend to meet in a point.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the verb to 1691.^[4][9]
• 1713 – the noun convergence.^[4]
• before 1774 – transitive, to cause lines or rays to come together.^[2]
• 1796 – mathematics, of a series, to approach a definite limit.^[2]
• 1837 – figurative, to tend towards a common result.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move towards the same place from different directions; to come together: Fans converged on the stadium gates.^[11][9]
2. To tend towards one point, as lines or rays do; to meet or join.^[9][2][11]
3. Of opinions, interests or effects, to tend towards a common result or conclusion.^[11][2]
4. (mathematics) Of an infinite series or sequence, to approach a finite limit as the number of terms increases.^[11][2]
5. (biology) Of unrelated animals or plants, to come to resemble each other in the course of evolution.^[11]
6. To cause lines, rays or things to come together.^[11][2]

Word family

• unconverged
• convergence
• reconverge
• convergent

Related words

• divergence
• diverge
• verge

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins