Etymologically
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divers

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /di.vɛʁ/[1]

Forms

divers (feminine diverse, masculine plural divers, feminine plural diverses)[1] Feminine diverse.[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dīversus (“turned in opposite directions; opposed; different”), the past participle used as an adjective of dīvertō (“to turn aside”) (see divertir).[2][3][4][5][6][1] The Latin adjective went on to mean “opposite, contrary, hesitating” and, in Late Latin, “several” in the plural.[2][3][7]

Rey and Bloch and Wartburg think that spoken Latin must also have given it the sense “wicked”, well attested in Old and Middle French (“cruel, bad, wild”), in Old Occitan divers and in Italian diverso; the Gallo-Romance forms also meant “strange, odd”, still the case in some dialects.[3][7] Compare Spanish diverso.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Comput (1119) has les divers tens, “the different seasons”.[2][3] The GLLF dates the sense “of various kinds” to the Chanson de Roland (about 1080): tante gent diverse.[5][8]

Semantic evolution

Jean de Meun (1269–78) uses it of a fickle person, and Old French writers of a treacherous or cruel one: the Roman de la Rose has diverse et muable “fickle and changeable”.[2][8][3] Modern French kept only the classical senses “different” and “changing”; in the 17th century it still often meant “opposite, contrary”, as in Molière.[3][5]

Placed before a plural noun it serves as an indefinite adjective, “several, sundry”.[3] The press phrase faits divers (1838), news items of daily life, often crimes, became a lexicalized compound.[3] The derivative diversement dates from about 1119, and diversité is borrowed from Latin (about 1165).[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1080 – Tante gent diverse, Chanson de Roland.[5][8]
  • 1119 – “Different”, Philippe de Thaon.[2]
  • c. 1165 – diversité.[3]
  • 1269–78 – “Fickle”, Jean de Meun.[2]
  • 17th century – “Contrary” still current.[3]
  • 1838 – Faits divers.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having several different aspects; varied, diverse: une population très diverse.[9][1]
  2. (plural) Different from one another: les divers sens d'un mot.[9]
  3. (plural, before the noun) Several, various, sundry: en diverses occasions.[3][9]
  4. Faits divers: news items, minor news, frais divers, sundry expenses.[3][9]
  5. (classical) Opposed, contrary.[5]

Word family

  • diversement

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 107a
  7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert