Etymologically
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converge

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Pronunciation

  • /kənˈvɜːd͡ʒ/[1]

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

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