True, I've only seen the spelling "divers" in fairly old works of literature and it throws me every time. It is about as modern as the spelling "shew" for "show". (e.g. in George Bernard Shaw.)

Perhaps it could be marked as [obs.] (for obsolete.)

@ Mary (nz/A) Shaw shooed "show" for "shew"

I don't recommend changing the spelling - otherwise generations of learners of English will be thrown off the track - the word is used in older English texts, and the spelling should remain in LEO.

I agree with Mary that it should be flagged, though perhaps 'obsolete' is a bit harsh - archaic might be better.

I agree that 'divers' is old-fashioned and seldom used nowadays except in very formal language, but I don't think it should be deleted, and above all, I do not agree at all that 'diverse' is its equivalent. To the best of my knowledge, the two words simply have different meanings, which careful writers still distinguish between:

divers - mehrere, various
diverse - unterschiedliche, different

Too late now to look for evidence; maybe tomorrow.

divers
adjective [ATTRIB.] archaic
or poetic/literary of varying
types; several: in divers
places.


diverse
adjective showing a great
deal of variety; very different:
a culturally diverse population
| subjects as diverse as
architecture, language
teaching, and the physical
sciences.

[New Oxford Dictionary of English]


divers adj. [only before noun] (old use) of many different kinds: a collection of essays on divers subjects

di•verse adj. very different from each other and of various kinds: people from diverse cultures * My interests are very diverse.
http://www.oup.com/oald-bin/web_getald7index1a.pl

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