diverge

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin dīvergō (“to go in different directions”),^[2][3][4] which Merriam-Webster, the Shorter Oxford and Hoad call Medieval Latin^[5][6][7] and Barnhart simply Latin.^[8] It is formed from dī-, the assimilated form of dis- (“apart”),^[2][3][8] and vergō (“to bend, turn, incline”),^[2][3][9] the source of verge in the sense "to tend".^[2][7] Etymonline, following Watkins, and the American Heritage Dictionary take the Latin verb back to Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”),^[3][9] and Merriam-Webster and Barnhart relate it to wrench.^[5][8] The OED compares French diverger, Spanish divergir and Portuguese divergir.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To go off in different directions from a point, said of lines and rays of light: 1665, in Robert Hooke's Micrographia.^[2][8][5] Etymonline likewise dates it to the 1660s and calls it originally a term of optics.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun divergence is recorded a little before the verb, in 1656, in Hobbes, and the adjective divergent follows in 1696.^[8] The verb began as a word for lines and rays: Johnson (1755) defines it as tending various ways from one point and quotes Newton's Opticks.^[10] A transitive use, making lines or rays branch off, appears in 1748,^[2] and mathematics took it up by 1796 for an infinite series whose sum grows without limit.^[2] The general and figurative senses, taking different courses and differing in opinion or character, are recorded only from the mid-19th century: the OED's first quotation is from 1856.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1665 – to proceed in different directions from a point, of lines or rays.^[2][8][5]
• 1748 – transitive, to make lines or rays branch off.^[2]
• 1796 – in mathematics, of an infinite series.^[2]
• 1856 – figurative, to take different courses, to differ in opinion or character.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move or extend in different directions from a common point; the opposite of converge: The two trails diverge at the ridge.^[5][11][2]
2. To become different in form or character, or to differ in opinion: Their accounts of the meeting diverge sharply.^[5][11][2]
3. To deviate from a course or track: The ship diverged from its planned route.^[11][5][2]
4. (mathematics) Of a series or sequence, to have no limit.^[11][2]
5. To cause lines or rays to separate and go in different directions.^[2][11]

Word family

• divergence
• divergent

Related words

• converge
• verge
• wrench
• diverse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins