disperse

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dispersen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French disperser (“to scatter”),^{[3][5][4][6][7]} and partly directly borrowed from Latin dispersus (“scattered”),^{[8][9][2][10]} the past participle of dispergō (“to scatter”).^[8][6][4] The Latin verb is formed from dis- (“apart, in every direction”) and spargō (“to scatter, strew, sprinkle”), whose vowel changes to e in compounds.^[8][11][6] The OED takes the participle dispers, used by Gower in 1393, from Old French dispers,^[6] and Barnhart from the Latin participle directly.^[3] It is related to sparse and asperse.^[8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Scattered, dispersed: the participle dispers is first recorded in Gower's Confessio Amantis (1393), of the people of Israel scattered like sheep on a hill without a keeper.^[2][6][3] The verb itself, to scatter, appears probably before 1425 in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[3][2] and the OED's first record of it is from an act of Parliament of 1503–4.^[6] Etymonline dates the verb to the late 14th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb could mean to scatter people or things, to rout an enemy, and to distract the mind.^[2] Etymonline dates the intransitive sense, to move apart in different directions, to the 1520s;^[8] the OED has it from 1665, with "to separate, go different ways" from before 1672.^[6] Of clouds, fears and the like, "to dissipate" is recorded from the 1560s, and as an intransitive verb from the 1590s.^[8][6] In the 16th century disperse could also mean to divide into parts (1548–1600) and to make known abroad (1548–1624), senses now obsolete,^[6] while "to spread abroad, diffuse" (1576) has survived.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "to scatter; to drive to different parts" and "to dissipate".^[12] The Old French adjective dispers was used in English from 1393 to the mid-16th century,^[6][9] and a new adjective, in chemistry, of a phase dispersed in another, was borrowed from German dispers.^[9] The noun dispersion is recorded from the 14th century, first for the Jews scattered among the Gentiles after the Babylonian Captivity, translating the Greek word that gave diaspora, and dispersal from the 19th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 1393 – dispers, scattered (obsolete by about 1553).^[6][2]
• before 1425 – the verb, to scatter.^[3]
• 1503 – to drive in all directions, to rout.^[6]
• before 1535 – to send to different places, to station apart.^[6]
• 1555 – to distribute from a centre; to put into circulation.^[6]
• 1563 – to dissipate, to cause to disappear.^[6][8]
• 1576 – to spread abroad, diffuse.^[6]
• 1665 – intransitive, to fly apart.^[6] Etymonline dates the intransitive use to the 1520s.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To scatter or drive in different directions: Mounted police dispersed the protesters.^[13][5][6]
2. Of a crowd or gathering, to break up and leave in different directions: The spectators dispersed after the match.^[13][6]
3. To send or station at different points over a wide area, as troops or aircraft.^[5][6]
4. To make or become thinner and disappear; to dissipate: The morning fog slowly dispersed.^[13][6]
5. To spread news or information widely; to diffuse.^[13][6]
6. (physics) To separate light or other radiation into its component wavelengths by dispersion.^[13]
7. (chemistry) To distribute fine particles through a solid, liquid or gas, as in a colloid.^[13]

Adjective

1. (chemistry) Consisting of particles dispersed in another medium: the disperse phase.^[13][5][9]
2. (obsolete, 1393–1553) Dispersed, scattered.^[6][9]

Word family

• dispersant
• disperser
• dispersible
• dispersedly
• dispersibility
• dispersive
• dispersoid
• redisperse

Related words

• dispersal
• dispersion
• sparse
• asperse
• aspersion

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins