divergent

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin dīvergēns (“going apart, diverging”), the present participle of dīvergō (“to go in different directions”),^[2][3][4][5] which Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com call Medieval Latin.^[6][7] The Shorter Oxford takes it as formed like divergence with the suffix -ent, perhaps after French divergent,^[8] which the OED records in French from the 17th century.^[2] The Latin verb is formed from dis- (“apart”) and vergō (“to bend, turn, incline”),^[3][2][5] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[3] It is the adjective of diverge, recorded from 1665, and the opposite of convergent.^[2][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Going off in different directions from each other or from a common point: 1696, in the new edition of Edward Phillips's dictionary “The New World of Words”.^[2][6] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date it to the 1690s.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of geometry and optics for lines and rays that spread apart.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "tending to various parts from one point".^[9][2] The figurative sense, following different lines of thought or action, or departing from a standard, is recorded from 1801, in Dupré's dictionary of French neologisms.^[2] From 1831 it was used of anything produced by or showing divergence, as in Brewster's optics.^[2] Since 1837 mathematicians have called an infinite series divergent when its sum grows without limit, in contrast to a convergent one.^[2][6] Botany uses it for plant parts that spread apart towards their tips.^[10][6] In 1956 the psychologist J. P. Guilford spoke of divergent thinking, which produces many possible answers to a problem.^[2]

Timeline

• 1690s – first recorded, according to Etymonline and Dictionary.com.^[3][7]
• 1696 – going in different directions from a common point (Phillips).^[2][6]
• 1755 – Johnson: "tending to various parts from one point".^[9]
• 1801 – figurative, following different lines; deviating from a standard.^[2]
• 1831 – of or produced by divergence (optics).^[2]
• 1837 – mathematics, of an infinite series.^[2]
• 1956 – psychology, divergent thinking.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Moving or extending in different directions from a common point; diverging: two divergent paths through the forest.^[10][6][2]
2. Differing from each other or from a standard: The two reports reached divergent conclusions.^[10][6][2]
3. (mathematics) Of an infinite series, having no finite limit; not convergent.^[10][6][2]
4. (botany) Of plant parts, spreading farther apart at their tips than at their bases.^[10][6]
5. (psychology) Of thinking, producing many different possible solutions to a problem.^[2]

Word family

• divergently
• undivergent
• nondivergent

Related words

• diverge
• converge
• divergence
• convergent
• verge

Usage notes

Collins notes that some people regard the use of divergent to mean simply "different", as in widely divergent opinions, as incorrect.^[10]

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 s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins