divers

Forms

divers adj (feminine diverse)^[1][2]

• dyvers, diviers^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dīversus (“turned different ways; different”),^[3][4][5] the past participle of dīvertō (“to turn aside”), used as an adjective.^[3][4] In Latin it came to mean "opposite, different", and in Late Latin, in the plural, "several".^[3][4] The FEW notes that the sense "several" is already clear in Gregory of Tours.^[6]

Bloch and Wartburg think that popular Latin also gave the word the sense "wicked", common in Old French until the 16th century, and compare Old Occitan divers and Italian diverso.^[7] The FEW suggests that this sense may come from the Latin sense "hostile", and that the Italian word could also be a borrowing.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Voyage de saint Brendan, an Anglo-Norman poem of the first quarter of the 12th century.^[8][9] The TLFi's first record is Philippe de Thaon's Comput, of 1119, with les divers tens “the different seasons”.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is "different, unlike", and out of it came "varied" and, in the plural, "several".^[1][3][4] Wace's life of Saint Nicholas, 1135–1150, plays on it: Si done Dex diversement / Divers sens et diverse gent “so God gives diversely different minds and different peoples”.^[11] Old French also used it for what is strange or odd, and for people and things that are wicked, cruel or wild.^[6][12][10] In the Roman de la Rose, 1269–1278, it describes a fickle person.^[3]

The modern word French divers kept only the Latin senses "different" and "changing", and the plural "several".^[4] The old senses live on in the dialects, from "extraordinary" in Guernsey to "scatterbrained, capricious" in the Morvan.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 1100–1125 – divers in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[9][8]
• 1119 – les divers tens in Philippe de Thaon's Comput.^[3][10]
• 1125 – diverses in the Cambridge Psalter.^[13]
• 1135–1150 – divers sens et diverse gent in Wace's Vie de saint Nicolas.^[11]
• c. 1170 – divers in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[14]
• 1269–1278 – “changeable, fickle” in Jean de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. different, unlike; various.^[1][3][15]
2. (plural) several.^[15][4]
3. changing, fickle.^[3][15][10]
4. strange, singular, out of the ordinary.^[16][10]
5. wicked, cruel.^[12][10][6]
6. (Anglo-Norman) mottled, not of one colour.^[15]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word from the first third of the 12th century, and its two oldest records, the Brendan and the Cambridge Psalter, are Anglo-Norman.^[15][8][13] The insular senses run from "different" and "several" to "inconstant" and "variegated".^[15] Middle English borrowed it in the late 13th century;^[17] diverse was later set apart from it in spelling and meaning.^[17]

Word family

• diverser
• diversement
• diverseté

Descendants

• Middle French divers (→ French divers)^[18]
• Middle English divers (borrowed; → English divers, English diverse)^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:1964
2. ^ a b FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. divers
5. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 349
6. ^ a b c d e Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3:107
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 239
8. ^ a b c Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. divers
9. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. BrendanS
10. ^ a b c d e f Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. divers
11. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
12. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:1965
13. ^ a b Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. PsCambrM
14. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. divers
15. ^ a b c d e f Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. divers
16. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:1966
17. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
18. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. divers