disparate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin disparātus (“separated, divided”), the past participle of disparō (“to divide, separate”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from dis- (“apart”) and parō (“to make ready, prepare”),^[2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *perə- (“to produce, procure”).^[4][6] Its meaning was influenced by dispār (“unequal, unlike, different”),^{[2][3][5][7][8]} from the apparently unrelated pār (“equal”).^[6][3] The noun follows Latin disparātum, the neuter of the participle.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Things so unlike that they cannot be compared, as a plural noun: 1586, in T. Bright's Treatise of Melancholie; the adjective follows in 1608.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the noun to the 1580s and the adjective to about 1600,^[6] but Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to the 15th century,^[9] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to late Middle English.^[8][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first meant "essentially different in kind", and in logic it was used of concepts with no common ground or genus.^[2][6] Under the influence of Latin dispār it also meant "unequal", from 1764.^[2][3] In current use it is applied both to things that are fundamentally distinct and to a group made up of very different elements.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 1586 – noun, things so unlike that they cannot be compared.^[2]
• 1608 – adjective, essentially different in kind.^[2][3]
• 1764 – unequal.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fundamentally different in kind; entirely dissimilar: two disparate approaches to the problem.^[4][7][9][2]
2. Made up of very different or unequal elements; not homogeneous: a disparate collection of volunteers.^[4][9]

Noun

1. (usually plural) Things or people so unlike that they cannot be compared.^[7][9][2]

Word family

• disparately
• disparateness
• nondisparate

Related words

• disparity
• pare
• prepare
• apparatus
• desperate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster