divulge

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English divulgen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin dīvulgō (“to spread among the people, publish, make common”).^[5][2][3][6] The American Heritage Dictionary takes it through Old French divulguer,^[7] Barnhart through the Middle French form of that verb as well as directly from Latin,^[8] and Dictionary.com allows an Anglo-French stage.^[9] The OED calls the derivation irregular, because the palatalized g is abnormal in English, and compares the French verb, recorded from the 14th century.^[5] The Latin verb is formed from dī-, a form of dis- (“apart, widely”), and vulgō (“to make common, publish”),^{[5][6][10][4]} from vulgus (“the common people”), the source of vulgar.^[10][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make known, to publicize: the Middle English Dictionary's first quotation is from Capgrave, about 1450.^[2] The OED's first record is also Capgrave, from before 1464, and Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to about 1450 and the mid-15th century.^[5][8][4]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was neutral and meant only to make something widely known, as in Caxton's fame of his ouvrages hath been divulged (1490),^[10] and the verb could also mean to publish a book or to proclaim a person.^[5][11] Etymologically it means making something known to the masses.^[10] The modern sense, telling what was private or secret, is recorded from 1602, in Marston,^[5][4] and it took over as the general sense died out: the OED's last record for that is from 1791.^[5] Johnson (1755) still leads with "to publish; to make publick; to reveal to the world", with "to proclaim" second, and quotes Milton's line about God who divulges the just man through heaven.^[12] Milton also used the word in the Latin way, to make common or impart generally.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – to make publicly known, to publish abroad (obsolete after 1791).^[2][5][8]
• 1566 – to publish a book or treatise (obsolete after 1709).^[5]
• 1602 – to tell openly something private or secret, to disclose.^[5][4]
• 1604 – intransitive, to become publicly known, in Shakespeare's Hamlet; rare.^[5]
• before 1616 – to proclaim a person publicly, in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (obsolete after 1671).^[5][11]
• 1619 – noun, the act of publishing abroad (now obsolete).^[5]
• 1667 – to make common, impart generally, in Milton's Paradise Lost; a Latinism.^[5][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make known something private or secret; to disclose or reveal: She would not divulge the name of her informant.^[13][3][7]
2. (rare) Intransitive: to become publicly known.^[5][11]
3. (archaic) To make public or proclaim; to spread abroad.^[7][3][5]

Word family

• divulgence
• divulger
• divulgement
• undivulged
• undivulging

Related words

• vulgate
• divulgate
• divulgation

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ 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
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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins