Pronounced: SEN-to, noun
Notes: This word is new to me
Yesterday’s word
The word divarication means
- the action, process or fact of spreading apart
- a divergence of opinion
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
Background / Comments
Our word originally had the literal definition of spreading apart (as two roads may do). Over time, the meaning spread to a metaphorical sense (as in the second definition above). I have found that the more one pins someone down to details on an option, the more the opinions will spread apart. Our word came from the Medieval Latin word divaricatio, which came from the verb divaricare (to spread apart), which came from the Latin verb varicare (to straddle).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 