Word of the Day

: October 5, 2019

divulge

verb dih-VULJ

What It Means

: to make known (something, such as a secret)

divulge in Context

"Mita Shah, a former marketing statistician, was once a devoted customer of this strip-mall parlor—so devoted that, one day in 2000, she divulged her much-finessed recipe for mango ice cream to the owner. It was such a hit, he offered her a job." — Ligaya Mishan, The New York Times, 2 July 2019

"Danielle was already up and watching the Discovery Channel, pretending to know more about sharks than the voice-over was willing to divulge, improvising facts as she went along, to make the ocean more interesting." — Camille Bordas, The New Yorker, 20 May 2019

Did You Know?

It isn't vulgar to make known the roots of divulge. The preceding sentence contains two hints about the origins of the word. Divulge was borrowed into Middle English in the 15th century from Latin divulgare, a word that combines the prefix dis-, meaning "apart" or "in different directions," with vulgare, meaning "to make known." Vulgare, in turn, derives from the Latin noun vulgus, meaning "mob" or "common people." As you have no doubt guessed, English vulgar is another word that can be traced back to vulgus.