dispersionn.
/dɪˈspəːʃən/ 1. The action of dispersing or scattering abroad; the condition or state of being dispersed; scattering, distribution, circulation.Early applied to the scattering of the Jews among the Gentiles after the Babylonian Captivity; whence sense 5.
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the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being scattered or dispersed > [noun] > action of scattering or becoming scattered
scattering1382
dispersionc1450
upsparplinga1560
dispersing1604
distraction1618
scatteration1776
dispersal1821
deconcentration1889
shattering1960
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going away > causing to go away > [noun] > driving away > driving away in all directions
sparpling1434
dispersionc1450
skailing?c1450
sparklingc1460
disparplinga1513
dissipation1545
dispersing1604
segregationa1616
scatteration1776
disjectiona1806
dispersal1821
scatteraway1851
spreadeagling1869
c1450 Mirour Saluacioun 3635 The Jewes yt tyme hadde bene thorgh the werlde in dispersionne.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 266 In the fyrst dispertion of nations.
1656 Manasseh ben Israel Vindiciæ Judæorum vii. 38 I conceived, that our universall dispersion was a necessary circumstance, to be fulfilled.
1786 E. Burke Articles of Charge against W. Hastings lii. 283 The..dispersion and exile of the reigning family.
1793 Trial Fyshe Palmer 22 The alleged dispersion of a seditious writing.
1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 929 The specialities of organisation which effect the dispersion of their seeds.
2. The action of diffusing or spreading; diffusion.
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the world > space > extension in space > spreading or diffusion > [noun]
spreadinga1250
skeltingc1540
diffusion1585
prosemination1611
scatter1642
dissemination1646
radiation1658
dispersion1664
spread1757
distribution1860
dispersal1863
scatteration1892
spreadation1925
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 29 That all Vegetables have a constant perspiration, the continual dispersion of their odour makes out.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature II. 36 When the natural dispersion of heat is disturbed..then a sensible heat is produced.
1874 tr. G. Hartwig Aerial World ii. 21 By this means is also gradually effected the dispersion of all gases.
3. Medicine. ‘The removal of inflammation, suppuration, or other morbid processes, from a part, and restoration to health’ ( New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon); dissipation.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > treatments removing or dispersing matter > [noun] > dispersing, etc., of humours or morbid matter
resolvinga1398
attractiona1400
resolutiona1400
repercussion?a1425
eduction?c1425
discussion1583
repulsion1583
epicrasis1592
derivation1600
expurgation1615
attractation1616
incision1626
diversion1656
dispersion1753
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) This is commonly term'd in surgery the resolution or dispersion of tumors.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) Remedies for the dispersion of inflammations.
1772 W. Buchan Domest. Med. (ed. 2) l. 700 An inflammation..must terminate either by dispersion, suppuration, or gangrene.
4. Optics. The divergence or spreading of the different-coloured rays of a beam of composite light when refracted by a prism or lens, or when diffracted, so as to produce a spectrum: esp. in reference to the amount of this divergence.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > chromatism > [noun] > formation of spectrum
dispersion1728
dissipation1749
anomalous dispersion1872
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Point of Dispersion is a Point from which refracted Rays begin to diverge.
1794 G. Adams Lect. Nat. & Exper. Philos. II. xxii. 501 This diffusion or dispersion of the rays is greater.
1833 N. Arnott Elements Physics (ed. 5) II. 199 The quality of..bending a beam, or of refraction, and that of dividing it into coloured beams, or of dispersion, are distinct.
1871 tr. H. Schellen Spectrum Anal. §18. 63 The decomposition of white light into its colored rays is called dispersion.
1881 N. Lockyer in Nature No. 617. 399 [The lines] are..visible when considerable dispersion is employed.
5. the Dispersion: The Jews dispersed among the Gentiles after the Babylonian Captivity; the scattered communities of Jews in general, or the communities in some single country, as the Egyptian Dispersion; = diaspora n.
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the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > Semite > [noun] > Jew > of specific area
the Dispersion1382
Oriental Jew1659
diaspora1694
Polack1834
Ashkenazim1839
Hebraist1892
Litvak1892
Peruvian Jew1897
Tudesco1897
halutzim1921
Yemenite1926
Ostjuden1934
Sabra1945
Yekke1950
refusenik1973
1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) 1 Pet. i. 1 To the chosen gestis of dispersioun [gloss, or scateringe abroad].
?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert (1891) l. 3781 Of ysrael þe dispercioune he gadird samen fra strete and toune.
1582 Bible (Rheims) John vii. 35 Wil he goe into the dispersion of the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?
1641 J. Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 30 Transported..to all the desolate ports and havens throughout the world, wherever the dispersion was, to convey their brethren and tribes to the Holy City.
1860 B. F. Westcott in W. Smith Dict. Bible I. 441/2 The African Dispersion..preserved their veneration for the ‘holy city’.
1880 J. E. Carpenter tr. H. Ewald Hist. Israel (ed. 2) V. 4 The ‘Coasts of the Sea’..are now (as in the eighth century) mentioned as a residence of the Dispersion.
6. law of dispersion n. The ‘Law of Error’ as regards distance from the mark without reference to the direction of error. So dispersion = the degree of scatter of values in a set of observations.
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1876 Catal. Special Loan Coll. Sci. Apparatus S. Kensington Mus. §48 Testing how far the relative numbers in the several classes accord with the results of the Law of Error or Dispersion.
1876 Catal. Special Loan Coll. Sci. Apparatus S. Kensington Mus. §49 The well-known bell-shaped curve, by which the law of error or of dispersion is mathematically expressed.
1897 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 60 865 Notice that no term measuring the dispersion of weights enters in the formula; but that the approximation was made on the assumption that the weights were equal.
1930 Engineering 13 June 756/1 The observations were characterised by a large dispersion, which was attributed to the numerous factors involved.
1963 B. Fozard Instrumentation Nucl. Reactors vii. 70 A commonly used measure of the dispersion or scatter of a number of observed values about the central values is the standard deviation σ.
7. Physical Chemistry. A type of intimate mixture in which one substance is present in a large number of separate small regions distributed throughout another, continuous, substance; examples are emulsions (one liquid in another) and aerosols (a solid or a liquid in a gas); also, the state of being so distributed. Also attributive, as dispersion medium n. a substance that may contain another substance ‘dispersed’ in it.
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the world > matter > chemistry > chemical admixture or isolation > [noun] > chemical combination > type of intimate chemical mixture
dispersion1915
1915 E. W. Washburn Princ. Physical Chem. xxv. 361 The degree of dispersion of a dispersed phase is usually defined as the ratio of its surface to its volume.
1919 E. Hendrick Chem. Everyday Life 74 Soap is a colloid, and when we get a little of it in a great deal of water we have it in dispersion.
1924 A. Findlay Physical Chem. 173 A colloidal sol..consists of finely divided particles (the dispersed phase) distributed throughout a dispersion medium.
1927 J. C. Crocker & F. Matthews Theoret. & Exper. Physical Chem. 274 Dispersion medium, the continuous phase in a colloidal solution, corresponding to the solvent in true solution.
1944 Petroleum Refiner Dec. 504/2 The property of maintaining insoluble matter (sludges and contaminants) in dispersion in the oil so that they will not settle out.
1957 Encycl. Brit. VI. 25/2 A foam is a gaseous dispersion (usually of air) in a liquid continuum.
1957 Encycl. Brit. VI. 25/2 Pastes are concentrated dispersions of fine solid particles in a liquid continuum.
1958 Times Rev. Industry May 69/1 The main dispersion mill..will turn out 500 gallons of emulsion paint in an hour.
Compounds
C1. attributive.
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1891 Times 28 Sept. 13/6 By an appropriate choice of dispersion lenses.
C2.
dispersion hardening n. Metallurgy a process of ageing produced by heating at high temperatures.
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1932 Metallurgist 8 110/1 The hardening depends on the degree of dispersion of the particles, and it is accordingly sometimes known as dispersion hardening.
1934 H. O'Neill Hardness of Metals vi. 195 ‘Dispersion hardening’ and ‘precipitation hardening’ are good labels to employ for the phenomenon in general.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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