Disperse
/dɪˈspɜːrs/noun
To scatter or spread widely in different directions.
Did you know?Disperse comes from Latin dispersus, the past participle of dispergere, meaning “to scatter abroad,” combining dis- (“apart”) with spargere (“to scatter, sprinkle”), a root that also gave English spark and sparse.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sperg-
“to scatter, sprinkle”
Latin
Latin
spargere
“to scatter, strew, sprinkle”
Latin
Latin
dispergere
“to scatter in different directions, disperse”
Old French
OF
disperser
“to scatter, distribute”
Middle English
English
dispersen
“to scatter widely, break up”
Modern English
English
disperse
“to scatter or spread out”