dissemination

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dissēminātiō (“a scattering of seed, a sowing”),^[2][3][4][5] a noun of action from dissēminō (“to spread abroad, disseminate”),^[2][3][6] which is formed from dis- (“in every direction”) and sēminō (“to sow, plant”),^[3][7] from sēmen (“seed”),^[3][2][8] from Proto-Indo-European *sē- (“to sow”).^[3][9] Etymonline also allows that it may have been formed in English from the verb disseminate, recorded a few decades earlier.^[3] The OED compares French dissémination.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of scattering or spreading something abroad, like seed: 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica;^[2][10] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s, in the sense of spreading opinions or information abroad.^[3] The Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 17th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline, the figurative sense of spreading opinions and information is recorded earlier in English than the literal one, the sowing or scattering of seed so that it grows.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as the act of scattering like seed, or of sowing or spreading, and quoted Browne on the boundless dissemination of error.^[11] In current use it is above all the spreading of information or ideas,^[12][6] while the OED's single sense covers both the action and the resulting state of being spread, as dispersion or diffusion.^[2]

Timeline

• 1646 – the scattering or spreading abroad of seed or of anything likened to it, in Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica.^[2][10] Etymonline dates the word to the 1640s.^[3]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as the act of scattering like seed, or of sowing or spreading.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of spreading something, especially information or ideas, widely: the dissemination of research findings.^[12][6][2]
2. The state of being spread or scattered about; diffusion or dispersion.^[6][2][8]
3. The scattering of seed.^[2][11]

Word family

• nondissemination
• disseminate

Related words

• seed
• semen
• seminal
• seminary

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press