propagation

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɹɒpəˈɡeɪʃən/ (UK); /pɹɑpəˈɡeɪʃən/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English propagacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French propagacion (“offshoot, offspring”),^[2][3][4] and directly from Latin prōpāgātiō (“propagation, extension”),^[2][5] from prōpāgāre (“to set forward, extend; to multiply plants by layers”),^[2] from prōpāgō (“layer of a plant, offspring”),^[2] from prō (“forth”) and the root of pangere (“to fasten”).^[2] It is related to pact.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The production of offspring; reproduction (before 1450).^[6][2][7]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb was a gardener's word for multiplying plants by layering.^[2] In English the noun first meant breeding or reproduction,^[6][2] and in the 16th century it was used of offspring or a race (1536, obsolete).^[6][7] From the multiplying of living things it came to mean the spreading of a belief or practice (1588 in the OED, 1531 in the Historical Thesaurus).^[6][7] In 1656 it was applied to the transmission of motion, light or sound,^[6][7] the sense Etymonline dates from the 1650s.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only “continuance or diffusion by generation or successive production”.^[8] In 20th-century chemistry it names the self-perpetuating steps of a chain reaction (1928 in the OED).^[6][5]

Timeline

• a1450 – reproduction, procreation.^[6]
• 1536 – offspring, breed (obsolete).^[6][7]
• 1588 – the spreading of a belief or practice.^[6]
• 1603 – increase, extension in space or time (obsolete).^[6]
• 1656 – the transmission of motion, light or sound.^[6][7]
• 1928 – a step in a chain reaction (chemistry).^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Multiplication or increase, as by natural reproduction; the breeding of plants or animals.
2. The spreading of something, such as a belief or practice, to a wider area or more people; dissemination.
3. (physics) The transmission of a wave or other form of energy, such as light or sound, through a medium or space.
4. The extension of a crack in a solid body.
5. (chemistry) The self-perpetuating step or steps in a chain reaction.

Word family

• propagational
• nonpropagation

Related words

• propagate
• propaganda
• pact
• page
• compact

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.