different between propagate vs disperse

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?

English

Etymology

From French disperser, from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergere (“to scatter abroad, disperse”), from dis- (“apart”) + spargere (“to scatter”); see sparse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??sp??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??sp??s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s
• Hyphenation: dis?perse

Verb

disperse (third-person singular simple present disperses, present participle dispersing, simple past and past participle dispersed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To scatter in different directions.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:disperse
2. (transitive, intransitive) To break up and disappear; to dissipate.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To disseminate.
4. (physics, transitive, intransitive) To separate rays of light, etc., according to wavelength; to refract.
5. (transitive, intransitive) To distribute throughout.

Usage notes

• Do not confuse with the monetary word disburse, despite the two being near homophones and having a degree of semantic similarity (in which disbursed money may be dispersed among expenses). A mnemonic to help make the difference obvious (which uses a cognate of each word) is that d?s-burs-ing is taking money out of the purse, whereas d?-spers-ing causes something to be sparsely scattered.

Derived terms

Related terms

• dispersal
• dispersible
• dispersion

Translations

Adjective

disperse (comparative more disperse, superlative most disperse)

1. Scattered or spread out.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• Perseids, despiser, perseids, presides

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis.p??s/

Verb

disperse

1. inflection of disperser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative
   2. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• perdisse, prédises, prédisse, présides

German

Adjective

disperse

1. inflection of dispers:
   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

Adjective

disperse

1. feminine plural of disperso

Noun

disperse f pl

1. plural of dispersa

Verb 1

disperse

1. inflection of disperdere:
   1. third-person singular past historic
   2. third-person singular past historic

Verb 2

disperse f

1. feminine plural of disperso

Anagrams

• depressi, perdessi, predisse

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /dis?per.se/, [d??s??p?rs??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /dis?per.se/, [d?is?p?rs?]

Participle

disperse

1. vocative masculine singular of dispersus

References

• disperse in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• disperse in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• disperse in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Portuguese

Verb

disperse

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of dispersar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of dispersar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of dispersar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of dispersar

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis?pe?se/, [d?is?pe?.se]

Verb

disperse

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of dispersar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of dispersar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of dispersar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of dispersar.