Etymologically
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propagation

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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

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.