divers

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English divers, also diverse,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French divers (“different, various”),^{[4][5][6][3][7]} from Latin dīversus (“turned different ways”),^[4][5][7][3] which in Late Latin also meant "various",^[4][5] the past participle of dīvertō (“to turn in different directions”),^[4][3][6] formed from dis- (“aside”) and vertō (“to turn”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[4] Etymonline dates the Old French adjective to the 11th century, the OED to 1119.^[4][8] The OED treats the English word as originally a variant of diverse, in later use kept apart in form for these senses.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Separate, distinct: about 1275, according to Barnhart,^[10][5] or the late 13th century in Etymonline.^[4] The OED's entry for this spelling begins with the sense "various, of various kinds", about 1300, in a life of Saint Michael in the Laud manuscript,^[8] and Barnhart has that sense probably before 1300, in a version of Guy of Warwick.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged says the 13th century,^[2] and Collins too.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The numerical sense grew from the sense of variety: as the OED put it, in words Etymonline quotes, the word referred "originally and in form to the variety of objects; but, as variety implies number, becoming an indefinite numeral word expressing multiplicity".^[4] The OED has "several, more than one" from 1340, in the Ayenbite,^[8] while Barnhart has it before 1400 and Etymonline by about 1400.^[5][4] A use as a pronoun, "several, a number", often with of, follows from 1441 in the OED,^[8] but from 1528 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[2] Middle English used the spellings divers and diverse indifferently, as Chaucer and Gower did,^[4][11] and the word could also mean "perverse, cruel" until the early 17th century.^[6] After about 1700 the two forms were kept apart: diverse for difference in kind, divers for number.^[4][8] Johnson (1755) already wrote that divers "is now grown out of use",^[12] and the OED now calls it archaic except in legal contexts.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – separate, distinct.^[5]
• c. 1300 – various, of various kinds.^[8]
• 1340 – several, more than one, an indefinite number of.^[8]
• 1441 – pronoun, several, a number.^[8]
• c. 1700 – divers and diverse become distinct in form and sense.^[4][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (archaic or literary) More than one but not a fixed number; several, sundry: divers members of the council.^[7][2][8]
2. (archaic or literary) Various; of various kinds.^[7][8]
3. (obsolete) Different in kind; diverse.^[2][6]

Pronoun

1. (archaic) Several, some number, often with of: divers of the crew.^[2][7][6][8]

Word family

• diversly

Related words

• diverse
• divert
• diversity
• diversify
• diver

Usage notes

The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, separates the two forms: divers implies difference only and always takes a plural noun, while diverse denotes difference with opposition.^[4] The OED notes occasional recent uses of diverse in the sense of divers, probably to avoid the very archaic look of that spelling.^[8] Wright records a separate plural noun divers, money troubles, from East Anglia, which he refers to Anglo-Norman devoirs.^[13] The word is also the plural of diver, which is unrelated.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
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. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House