To sprinkle or spray, especially with holy water in a religious ceremony.
From Latin 'aspergere', meaning to scatter or sprinkle, related to the root 'spargere'. The word entered English through ecclesiastical Latin and Catholic ritual terminology, preserving its original Latin form in many contexts.
The verb 'asperge' is almost exclusively preserved in religious contexts today, but it connects to the broader Latin vocabulary of spreading and scattering—the same root gives us 'disperse' and 'sparse', showing how one root word branches into English vocabulary with different prefixes.
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