early-diverging
|ear-ly-di-ver-ging|
🇺🇸
/ˈɝli dɪˈvɝdʒɪŋ/
🇬🇧
/ˈɜːli dɪˈvɜːdʒɪŋ/
branching off near the base
Etymology
'early-diverging' originates from modern English compounding of the adjective 'early' and the verb 'diverge'. 'early' ultimately comes from Old English 'ærlic' meaning 'before' or 'at an earlier time', and 'diverge' comes from Latin 'divergere' meaning 'to turn apart'.
'early' changed from Old English 'ærlic' into Middle and then Modern English 'early'. 'Diverge' came into English via Latin 'divergere' and Old French forms (e.g. 'diverger'), becoming Middle English 'divergen' and Modern English 'diverge'. The hyphenated compound 'early-diverging' arose in recent scientific usage to describe lineages that branch off near the base of a phylogenetic tree.
Initially, 'early' meant 'before, at an earlier time' and 'diverge' meant 'to turn apart'. In modern scientific contexts the compound now specifically denotes branching off near the base of an evolutionary tree (i.e., occurring early in a group's history).
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
noun form (transformation of 'early-diverging'): a divergence or branching event that occurred early in the history of a group.
The early divergence of these lineages shaped the group's subsequent evolution.
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Adjective 1
branching off near the base of a phylogenetic tree; diverging early in evolutionary history (used especially in biology).
The study found that this lineage is early-diverging among the clade, retaining several ancestral traits.
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Last updated: 2026/01/11 13:49