dispergo

Forms

dispergō (present infinitive dispergere, perfect active dispersī, supine dispersum); third conjugation^[1] It is also spelled dispargō, usually in late Latin and some manuscripts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dis- (“apart”) + spargō (“to scatter”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan traces spargō to Proto-Italic *sparg- and Proto-Indo-European *sp(e)r-g- (“to strew”), cognate with Hittite išpār- (“to spread out, strew”) and Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō, “to strew, sow”); he rejects the older link with words for crackling sounds.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first author is Terence.^[5] In the Adelphoe a man threatens: an tibi iam māvīs cerebrum dispergam hīc?, “would you rather I scatter your brains here?”^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to scatter or spread about, and of people or animals to disperse: Varro contrasts goats, which scatter, with sheep, which flock together.^[2] Places such as islands are said to be scattered along a coast (Mela), and abstract things spread out, as Cicero's war divided and dispersed so widely.^[2] It is also to spread out in all directions, of light, and to bespatter.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “scatter, disperse, spread”.^[6] English disperse (late 14th century) comes from its participle dispersus.^[4]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of scattering brains.^[5][2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of goats scattering.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a widely scattered war.^[2][7]
• late 14th century – English disperse.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To scatter, spread about, disperse.^[2][1][6]
2. To spread out in all directions.^[2]
3. To sprinkle, bespatter.^[2]

Word family

• dispersim
• dispersiō
• dispersus

Related words

• spargō
• aspergō
• cōnspergō
• English disperse

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de