Revised as of
1 July 2023
A query about the difference between disburse and disperse came up in an erotic novel I was reading . . . see, anything one reads can be educational . . .
The two words do have a definition, sort of, in common: they both scatter. Only, disburse scatters according to a plan while disperse scatters randomly. And only, disburse is about money.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Disburse | Disperse |
|---|---|
US Army Spc. Paul Bernard Disburses Food, Water, and Medicine From a UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter to Victims of Hurricane Stan in Guatemala is a US Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st class Robert McRill and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Teargas and Water Cannon Disperse HINDRAF Supporters During Illegal Gathering, 25 November 2007 by lastsham (originally posted to Flickr as perhimpunan hindraf) is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Verb, transitive
Third person present verb: disburses |
Adjective; Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: disperses |
Pay out money from a fund
To distribute or scatter |
Adjective: Denoting a phase dispersed in another phase, as in a colloid Verb, intransitive and transitive:
Verb, transitive:
|
| Examples: | |
| The proceeds were disbursed monthly.
Disburse the troops over a wide area to prevent the enemy pinpointing them too easily. They said that $67 million of the pledged aid had already been disbursed. She’s out there every day, disbursing bread for the geese. |
Adjective: Emulsions should be examined after storage for droplet size of the disperse phase. Verb, intransitive: The earlier mist had dispersed, allowing the sun to shine forth. Verb, transitive: Camping sites should be dispersed among trees so as to be out of sight. The police used tear gas to disperse the protesters. Winds dispersed the bomb’s radioactive cloud high in the atmosphere. Miss Perkins, you will have to redo your experiment, as you did not disperse the elements as thoroughly as the instructions required. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: disbursable, nondisbursable, nondisbursed Noun: disbursal, disbursing, disbursement, disburser Verb, transitive: redisburse, redisbursed, redisbursing |
Adjective: dispersible, dispersive Adverb: dispersedly Noun: disperser, dispersibility, dispersing, dispersion Verb, transitive: predisperse, predispersed, predispersing |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-16th century from the Old French desbourser, which is from des- (expressing removal) + bourse (purse), which came from the Late Latin bursa meaning bag. | Late Middle English from the Latin dispers- meaning scattered, which is from the verb dispergere, which is itself from dis- (widely) + spargere (scatter, strew). |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Disburse versus Disperse
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: disperse
Pinterest Photo Credits
Cannon is in the public domain, via Pxfuel and Famous Dollar Bill Wallpaper, Oatman Hotel, Oatman, Arizona, is by Ken Lund and under the CC BY-SA license, via VisualHunt. Both have had their backgrounds removed, and the dispersed dollar bills have been repeated. Riot Squad by Joy Garnett, is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr and was resized in Photoshop.
