verg-, -vergent, -vergence +
(Latin: bend, curve, turn, tend toward, incline)
2. Of, pertaining to, characterized or produced by, divergence.
2. Turning off from the straight course.
2. The upward rotation of an eye.
2. Of the sun; to descend toward the horizon; to sink, or begin to do so.
3. To move in a certain direction (especially, downwards); also, to extend or to stretch.
4. To incline or tend, to approach or draw near, towards or to some state or condition.
5. To pass or undergo gradual transition into something else.
6. The limit beyond which something happens or changes: "On the verge of tears."
7. To border on; to come close to: "His behavior verges on the criminal."
Verge, the verb form, came into English in about 1610, with the meaning of "tend, incline", from Latin vergere, "to bend, to turn, to tend toward, to incline".
It was also influenced by the noun form of verge in its verbal form meaning "to be adjacent to".
Verge, the noun, comes from Latin virga, "twig, rod, wand" and has two general applications:
- Staff of office.
- Limit, margin, edge.
The form which now means "rod" and "edge", was originally used in English for "penis" and is still used as a technical term for the male reproductive organ of invertebrate animals.
It came into English via Old French verge and from Latin virga "rod" and the sense of "edge" emerged in the 15th century from the notion of the limits of territorial jurisdiction of the Lord High Steward, as symbolized by his "rod" of office". A verger is also etymologically someone who carries an official "rod".
Words that have come from the noun form
The sense of "limit, margin, edge", developed from the meaning "staff of office", through the medium of the term within the verge used in the sense of "within the sphere of authority of the Royal Steward" has resulted in several related words:
- Verge, an old name for the yard, taken from the Latin word virga for a twig or stick. In modern French, verge is the customary word for the English "yard".
- As a boundary; a line, belt, or strip that acts as a boundary or edge.
- An edge; the edge, rim, or margin of something.
- In the United Kingdom, roadside border; a narrow border that runs alongside a road.
- Architecture roof edge; the edge of a sloping roof where it extends beyond the gable.
- A clock spindle; the spindle of a balance wheel in early clock and watch mechanisms.
- In history, a rod held by tenant; a rod held by a feudal tenant when swearing an oath of loyalty to his or her lord.
- A rod as a symbol of office; a rod or staff carried as a symbol of authority or an emblem of office.
2. A disjunctive movement of the eyes in which the fixation axes are not parallel, as in convergence or divergence.
Inter-related cross references involving word units meaning "bend, curve, turn": diversi-; diverticul-; flect-, flex-; gyro-; meand-; -plex; streph-; stroph-; tors-; tropo-; vers-; volv-.
