diversity

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /daɪˈvɜː.sə.ti/, /dɪˈvɜː.sə.ti/, US /dɪˈvɝː.sə.t̬i/, /daɪˈvɝː.sə.t̬i/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English diversite, borrowed from Old French diversité (“difference, diversity; oddness; wickedness”),^[2][3][4] from Latin dīversitās (“contrariety, disagreement; difference”) (accusative diversitatem),^[2][5] from dīversus “turned different ways”, the past participle of dīvertere “to turn aside”.^[2][4] See diverse and divert.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The condition of being different or varied: before 1340 in the OED, the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[6][2] A point of unlikeness is from about 1340.^[6]

Semantic evolution

A negative sense, perversity or evil, existed from the late 14th century but was obsolete by the 17th;^[2] the OED has it from 1483.^[6] Etymonline notes that diversity as a virtue in a nation was an idea of the 1790s, when it was thought to keep one faction from taking all power, but that this was not yet the modern sense.^[2] The inclusion of people of different races, genders and religions in a group is a recent sense.^[7] In radio, diversity reception, using several aerials to reduce fading, is from 1930.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1340 – difference, variety.^[6]
• 1483 – perversity, evil (obsolete).^[6]
• 1790s – diversity as a political virtue.^[2]
• 1930 – diversity reception in radio.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The state of being varied or different; variety: a diversity of opinions.
2. The inclusion of people of different races, cultures, genders or religions in a group.
3. A point in which things differ.

Word family

• biodiversity
• overdiversity

Related words

• diverse
• divert
• divers
• diversify
• diversion
• verse

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins