different between profess vs propagate

English

Etymology

From Old French professer, and its source, the participle stem of Latin profit?r?, from pro- + fat?r? (“to confess, acknowledge”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???f?s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

profess (third-person singular simple present professes, present participle professing, simple past and past participle professed)

1. (transitive) To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.) [from 14th c.]
   • 2000, Butler's Lives of the Saints, p.118:

     This swayed the balance decisively in Mary's favour, and she was professed on 8 September 1578.

2. (reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something). [from 16th c.]
   • 2011, Alex Needham, The Guardian, 9 Dec.:

     Kiefer professes himself amused by the fuss that ensued when he announced that he was buying the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor […].

3. (transitive, intransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, First Folio 1623:

     He professes to haue receiued no sinister measure from his Iudge, but most willingly humbles himselfe to the determination of Iustice […].

   • 1974, ‘The Kansas Kickbacks’, Time, 11 Feb 1974:

     The Governor immediately professed that he knew nothing about the incident.
4. (transitive) To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. [from 16th c.]
   • 2010, Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian, 28 Sep 2010:

     Ed Miliband professed ignorance of the comment when he was approached by the BBC later.
5. (transitive) To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.). [from 16th c.]
   • 1983, Alexander Mcleish, The Frontier Peoples of India, Mittal Publications 1984, p.122:

     The remainder of the population, about two-thirds, belongs to the Mongolian race and professes Buddhism.

6. (transitive) To work as a professor of; to teach. [from 16th c.]
7. (transitive, now rare) To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter). [from 16th c.]

Translations

Further reading

• profess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• profess in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

Latin propagatus

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p??p???e?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p??p???e?t/

Verb

propagate (third-person singular simple present propagates, present participle propagating, simple past and past participle propagated)

1. (transitive, of animals or plants) To cause to continue or multiply by generation, or successive production
   • June 1879, William Keith Brooks, Popular Science Monthly Volume 15 - The Condition of Women from a Zoological Point of View I

     A marked bud-variation is of very rare occurrence, but in many cases the tendency of plants raised from seeds to differ from the parents is so great that choice varieties are propagated entirely by buds. It is almost hopeless to attempt to propagate a choice variety of grape or strawberry by seeds, as the individuals raised in this way seldom have the valuable qualities of their parents, and, although they may have new qualities of equal or greater value, the chances are of course greatly against this, since the possibility of undesirable variation is much greater than the chance of a desirable sport.

2. (transitive) To cause to spread to extend; to impel or continue forward in space

3. (transitive) To spread from person to person; to extend the knowledge of; to originate and spread; to carry from place to place; to disseminate
   • 1938, Hilaire Belloc, The Great Heresies Chapter 4

     There began to appear from the East, cropping up now here, now there, but in general along lines of advance towards the West, individuals or small communities who proposed and propagated a new and, as they called it, a purified form of religion.

   • 1913, J. B. Bury, A History of Freedom of Thought Chapter 3

     The works of the freethinker Averroes (twelfth century) which were based on Aristotle's philosophy, propagated a small wave of rationalism in Christian countries.
4. (obsolete, transitive) To multiply; to increase.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Act 1, Scene 1

     Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, / Which thou wilt propagate.

5. (transitive) To generate; to produce.
   • 1847, Thomas De Quincey, Conversation (published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine)

     Motion propagated motion, and life threw off life.

6. (biology, intransitive) To produce young; to be produced or multiplied by generation, or by new shoots or plants
   • 1868, Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication Chapter XXVIII

     As pigeons propagate so rapidly, I suppose that a thousand or fifteen hundred birds would have to be annually killed by mere chance.

7. (intransitive, computing) To take effect on all relevant devices in a network.

   It takes 24 hours for password changes to propagate throughout the system.

8. (transitive, computing) To cause to take effect on all relevant devices in a network.

   The server propagates the password file at midnight each day.

Derived terms

• propagation
• propagator

Translations

References

• propagate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Ido

Verb

propagate

1. adverbial present passive participle of propagar

Italian

Verb

propagate

1. second-person plural present indicative of propagare
2. second-person plural imperative of propagare
3. feminine plural of propagato

Anagrams

• prepagato

Latin

Verb

pr?p?g?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of pr?p?g?