divisor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English divisour, also diviser and devisour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin dīvīsor (“one who divides”),^[5][4][6][7] an agent noun from dīvidō (“to force apart, divide”),^[5][4] which is the source of divide.^[4][5] The early instances may instead be borrowed from Middle French diviseur, recorded in the 15th century;^[5] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give French or Latin as the source,^[8][9] and the Middle English Dictionary both.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A number by which another is to be divided: about 1430, in the Art of Nombryng.^[5] The Middle English Dictionary quotes the work from about 1450: Ay shalle the nombre that is to be dyvydede be more, other at the lest evene with the nombre the dyvysere.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1425–75.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The term has been an arithmetical one from its first records, the counterpart of dividend.^[5] In 1557 R. Recorde's Whetstone of Witte has the narrower sense, a number that divides another exactly, a factor.^[5][8] The Latin sense "one who divides" is recorded only in a will of 1542, of a person appointed to divide property.^[5] Johnson (1755) defines it as the number that shows into how many parts the dividend is to be divided.^[10] Merriam-Webster also records it for devices that share out the water of an irrigation ditch among those with rights to it.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1430 – a number by which another is to be divided.^[5]
• 1542 – a person appointed to divide property (obsolete, rare).^[5]
• 1557 – a number that divides another exactly, a factor.^[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mathematics) The number or quantity by which another, the dividend, is divided: In 12 ÷ 3, the divisor is 3.^[11][3][5]
2. (mathematics) A number that goes into another exactly, a factor.^[11][5][8]
3. A device for sharing out the water of an irrigation ditch among those with rights to it.^[3]

Word family

• greatest common divisor

Related words

• divide
• division
• divisible
• devise

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins