divergent
Pronunciation
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
- Moving or extending in different directions from a common point; diverging: two divergent paths through the forest.[10][6][2]
- Differing from each other or from a standard: The two reports reached divergent conclusions.[10][6][2]
- (mathematics) Of an infinite series, having no finite limit; not convergent.[10][6][2]
- (botany) Of plant parts, spreading farther apart at their tips than at their bases.[10][6]
- (psychology) Of thinking, producing many different possible solutions to a problem.[2]
Word family
- divergently
- undivergent
- nondivergent
Related words
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
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
- ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins