agent or instrumental suffix, from Old French and French -ant, from Latin -antem, accusative of -ans, present-participle suffix of many Latin verbs. Compare -ance.

"tending to meet or actually meeting in a point," 1730, from converge + -ent. Convergent evolution was in use among biologists by 1890 (convergence in evolutionary biology dates to 1866).

"driving forward, propelling," the less-etymological, but more usual, modern spelling of propellent,1640s, from propel + -ent. As a noun from 1814, "that which propels or drives forward;" by 1881 as "a firearm explosive;" by 1919 as "fuel for a rocket engine."