c. 1300, poudren, "to put or sprinkle powder on;" late 14c., "to make into powder," from Old French poudrer "to pound, crush to powder; strew, scatter," from poudre (see powder (n.)). Specifically as "to whiten cosmetically by some application of white material in powder form" is from 1590s. Related: Powdered; powdering.
late 14c., diffusioun, "a copious outpouring," from Old French diffusion and directly from Latin diffusionem (nominative diffusio) "a pouring forth," noun of action from past-participle stem of diffundere "scatter, pour out," from dis- "apart, in every direction" (see dis-) + fundere "to pour" (from nasalized form of PIE root *gheu- "to pour"). Meaning "act of diffusing, state of being diffuse" is from 1590s; figurative sense of "a spreading abroad, dispersion" (of knowledge, etc.) is by 1750.
1560s, "to bring (a building) to ruin, bring into a ruinous condition by misuse or neglect," from Latin dilapidatus, past participle of dilapidare "to squander, waste," originally "to throw stones, scatter like stones," from dis- "asunder" (see dis-) + lapidare "throw stones at," from lapis (genitive lapidis) "stone" (see lapideous). Perhaps the English word is a back-formation from dilapidation. Intransitive sense of "fall into total or partial ruin" is from 1712.
c. 1300, dismembren, "to cut off the limbs of," also figuratively "to scatter, disperse, divide into parts or sections so as to destroy the integrity," from Old French desmembrer (11c., Modern French démembrer), from Medieval Latin dismembrare "tear limb from limb; castrate," from Latin de "take away" (see de-) + membrum "limb" (see member). Related: Dismembered; dismembering.
1786 as a military word, "extend (troops) in a line, expand (a unit which had been formed in columns)," from French déployer "unroll, unfold," from Old French desploiier "unfold," from Latin displicare "unfold, scatter," from dis- (see dis-) + plicare "to fold" (from PIE root *plek- "to plait"). "In its AFr. form regularly adopted in ME as desplay" [OED]. Figurative use by 1829. Intransitive sense from 1796. Related: Deployed; deploying.
Old English sawan "to scatter seed upon the ground or plant it in the earth, disseminate" (class VII strong verb; past tense seow, past participle sawen), from Proto-Germanic *sean (source also of Old Norse sa, Old Saxon saian, Middle Dutch sayen, Dutch zaaien, Old High German sawen, German säen, Gothic saian), from PIE root *sē- "to sow," source of semen, season (n.), seed (n.). Figurative sense was in Old English.
sprinkling ritual of the Catholic church, also an antiphon intoned or sung during this, 1550s, from Late Latin asperges, noun use of 2nd person singular future indicative of Latin aspergere "to scatter, strew upon, sprinkle," from ad "to" (see ad-) + spargere "to sprinkle" (see sparse). The word is taken from the phrase Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, from the 51st Psalm (Vulgate), sung during the rite of sprinkling a congregation with holy water. Old English used onstregdan as a loan-translation of Latin aspergere.
mid-15c., dilapidacioun, "wasteful expenditure, squandering;" late 15c., "state of disrepair, gradual ruin or decay, especially through misuse or neglect," from Late Latin dilapidationem (nominative dilapidatio) "a squandering," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin dilapidare "throw away, squander, waste," probably etymologically "scatter like stones," from dis- "asunder" (see dis-) + lapidare "throw stones at," from lapis (genitive lapidis) "stone" (see lapideous). "Taken in Eng. in a more literal sense than was usual in Latin" [OED].
