divergir

Forms

divergir (first-person singular present divirjo, third-person singular present diverge, first-person singular preterite divergi, past participle divergido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin *dīvergō, a form that Houaiss and Cunha set up beside the Latin dēvergō (“to incline, sink”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary takes it from Latin dīvergō (“to bend to different sides”), with a change of conjugation, and Figueiredo directly from the classical verb.^[1][5] Nascentes says that the Latin verb was taken up by the writers on optics in the 17th century.^[6]

The French verb diverger is a late borrowing, in music in 1785 (1720 according to Bloch and Wartburg) and in physics from 1788.^[7] The Latin verb is built on vergō (“to slope down, sink”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Indo-European *h₂werg- (“to turn”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELPo records divergirem in the debates of the Assembléa Geral of 2 May 1827.^[9] Houaiss's date of 1873 is the first dictionary to list the word, Vieira's.^[2] Cunha dates the nouns divergência and divergente to 1813.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense “to draw progressively apart from a common point” and the figurative “to disagree” are both in the old Caldas Aulete, which illustrates the second from Eça.^[10] The French verb gained the figurative sense in 1830.^[7] Modern dictionaries add “to differ, not to be alike” and, in mathematics, the use for a series or integral without a finite limit.^{[2][4][11][12]}

Timeline

• 1827 – divergirem in the debates of the Assembléa Geral.^[9]
• 1873 – Vieira's dictionary lists the verb.^[2]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos gives the senses “to deviate”, “to move progressively apart” and “to disagree”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To move progressively apart; to branch off, deviate (desviar): A partir da ponte, as duas estradas divergem.^{[2][4][14][1]}
2. (intransitive, with de) To disagree (discordar), to hold a different opinion: Divergimos quanto ao preço.^{[2][4][12][1]}
3. (intransitive) To differ, not to be alike or in keeping: os dois relatos divergem em vários pontos.^[11][10][12]
4. (mathematics) Of a series or integral, to diverge, having no finite limit.^[2][4]

Related words

• divergência
• diverso
• divergente
• convergir
• verter
• Latin vergō
• French diverger

Usage notes

In the present the stem vowel becomes i where the ending begins with o or a: divirjo, divirja; the old Caldas Aulete refers the verb to the model of aderir.^[1][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. divergir
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. divergir
4. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. divergir
5. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. divergir
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. divergir
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. diverger
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. divergir
10. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. divergir
11. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. divergir
12. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. divergir
13. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. divergir
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. divergir