To spread and promote an idea, belief, or practice widely. In biology, to reproduce or multiply organisms or plants.
Latin 'propagatus', past participle of 'propagare' meaning to set forward, extend, or reproduce plants by cuttings. Originally from 'propago' (a slip or cutting for planting), the word expanded from botanical reproduction to general spreading of ideas by the 17th century.
The word's journey from gardening to ideology reflects humanity's understanding that ideas, like plants, need the right conditions to take root and spread. Radio waves were said to 'propagate' because early scientists thought of them spreading like seeds through the 'aether'!
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