diverse

English Online Dictionary. What means diverse‎? What does diverse mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /daɪˈvɜːs/, /ˈdaɪvɜːs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dəˈvɜɹs/, /daɪ-/, /ˈdaɪˌvɜɹs/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
• Hyphenation: di‧verse

Etymology 1

The adjective is derived from Middle English divers, diverse (“different, divergent”), from Anglo-Norman divers, Anglo-Norman divers, and Old French divers (“different; of various kinds”) (modern French divers), and directly from their etymon Latin dīversus (“different, diverse”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of dīvertō (“to divert, turn away”), from dī- (variant of dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, in two’)) + vertō (“to turn”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to rotate; to turn”)). Doublet of divert.

The adverb is derived from Middle English diverse (“differently; at various times”), from divers, diverse (adjective) (see above).

Adjective

diverse (comparative more diverse, superlative most diverse)

2. Not the same; different, dissimilar, distinct.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:different
3. Consisting of different elements; various.

   Synonyms: (archaic or literary) divers, manifold; see also Thesaurus:heterogeneous

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:homogeneous

5. Capable of or having various forms in different situations or at different times; multiform.
6. Chiefly preceded by a descriptive word: of a community, organization, etc.: composed of people with a variety of different demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status; especially, having a sizeable representation of people who are minorities in the community, organization, etc.
7. (nonstandard) Of a person: belonging to a minority group.
8. (obsolete)
   1. Differing from what is good or right, or beneficial; bad, evil; harmful.
   2. Having different colours; mottled, variegated.
   3. (rare) Causing one to be indecisive between different viewpoints.

Usage notes

In early modern English, divers (and diuers) were the most common spellings of diverse and were pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. By the 18th century, divers (now pronounced /ˈdaɪvəz/) came to be used mainly to mean “various” (now archaic or literary, and replaced by diverse) and “an indefinite number of, some”, while diverse (/ˈdaɪvəs/) was mainly used in sense 1 (“not the same, different”) and sense 3 (“capable of or having various forms in different situations or at different times”). Over time, the stress of diverse also shifted to the second syllable (/daɪˈvɜːs/), which is now the more common pronunciation.

Alternative forms

• diuers, divers (obsolete)

Derived terms

Related terms

• divert
• diversity

Translations

Adverb

diverse (comparative more diverse, superlative most diverse)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of diversely (“in different directions”)

Etymology 2

From Middle English diversen (“to differ, diverge; to become different, change; to vary; to change or vary (something); to make a distinction, distinguish; to divert”), from Anglo-Norman diverser, Middle French diverser, and Old French diverser (“to alter, change; to differ, diverge; to disagree”), from Late Latin diversare (“to differ”), and then either:

• a frequentative form of Latin dīvertere, the present active infinitive of dīvertō (see etymology 1); or
• from dī- (variant of dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, in two’)) + versāre (the present active infinitive of versō (“to alter, change; to keep turning, whirl”), a frequentative form of vertō: see etymology 1).

Sense 1 (“synonym of diversify”) became obsolete in the 16th century, and was probably recoined in the 20th century.

Verb

diverse (third-person singular simple present diverses, present participle diversing, simple past and past participle diversed)

2. (transitive) Synonym of diversify
   1. To make (something) different or varied in form or quality; to alter, to change, to vary.
   2. (business, finance) To make the scope of (business, investments, etc.) different or varied, especially so as to balance and mitigate risks. [from 20th c.]
3. (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To go a different route or way from someone else; to diverge, to separate.

Translations

References

Further reading

• diversity (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “diverse”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “diverse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “diverse”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• diverse in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.

Anagrams

• derives, dervise, deviser, drivees, dérives, revised, sivered

Danish

Etymology

From Latin diversus, via French divers.

Adjective

diverse

1. various, sundry, miscellaneous, incidental.

   Synonyms: alle mulige, alskens, forskellige, forskelligartet

2. Capable of various forms; multiform.

Inflection

References

• “diverse” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

Adjective

diverse

1. inflection of divers:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

Anagrams

• de Vries

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /diˈverse/
• Rhymes: -erse
• Hyphenation: di‧ver‧se

Adverb

diverse

1. diversely

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.vɛʁs/

Adjective

diverse

1. feminine singular of divers

Anagrams

• dérives, dérivés, verdies

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

diverse

1. inflection of divers:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /diˈvɛr.se/
• Rhymes: -ɛrse
• Hyphenation: di‧vèr‧se

Adjective

diverse f pl

1. feminine plural of diverso

Verb

diverse

1. third-person singular past historic of divergere

Anagrams

• sedervi, vedersi

Latin

Alternative forms

• dīvorsē

Etymology

From dīversus (“turned different ways”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [diːˈwɛr.seː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [d̪iˈvɛr.se]

Adverb

dīversē (not comparable)

1. in different directions; hither and thither
2. (figuratively) variously

Related terms

• dīversitās
• dīversus

References

• “diverse”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “diverse”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• diverse in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, 1st edition. (Oxford University Press)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• divers, dyvyrs, dyvers, dyverse, dyverce

Etymology

From Old French divers, from Latin diversus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdivərs/, /ˈdiːvərs/

Adjective

diverse

1. different, differing
2. (collectively) distinct, unique; diverse
3. various, varying
4. strange, odd, unusual
5. several, many
6. unfriendly

Related terms

• diversite

Descendants

• English: diverse
• Scots: diverse

References

• “dī̆vers(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-02.

Adverb

diverse

1. differently; diversely
2. variously

Descendants

• English: diverse

References

• “dī̆verse, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-02.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin diversus, via French divers.

Adjective

diverse (indeclinable)

1. diverse, various, sundry, miscellaneous.

2. Capable of various forms; multiform.

References

• “diverse” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin diversus, via French divers.

Adjective

diverse (indeclinable)

1. diverse, various, sundry, miscellaneous.
2. Capable of various forms; multiform.

References

• “diverse” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Adjective

diverse (not comparable) (plural only)

1. various, miscellaneous

   Synonym: allehanda

References

• diverse in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• diverse in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• diverse in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)