Pronounced: REE-bus, noun
Notes: After seeing the definition, I knew this word, but I didn’t know the meaning when seeing it
Yesterday’s word
The word divers means “made up of an indefinite number greater than one; various”
First usage
Our word came into English in the early to mid-1200s (but see the comments below)
Background / Comments
Our word looks like the plural of “diver” or a misspelling of “diverse”. Both “diverse” and our word come from the same source, and for around 500 years they were more or less interchangeable… and even pronounced the same (either DIE-verse or die-VERSE). However, after 1700, “diverse” began to be pronounced “die-VERSE” and implies dissimilar options. Our word took on the pronunciation of DIE-verse and just mean multiple options. Our word comes the Latin word diversus (turning in opposite directions).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 