devolve and regress

[iemmahu]

Is there difference between the two words devolve and regress?
Can anyone help me figure it out? Many thanks.

[paul.moss]

Is there difference between the two words devolve and regress?
Can anyone help me figure it out? Many thanks.

I wonder what it is that makes you think these words are even synonyms;they have nothing in common:regress is the antonym of progress and means becom worse and devolve is a formal word for give as in He devolved his responsibility to his deputy.

[BobK]

I think the misapprehension (that the words are alike, which they're not) may be due to an app that used 'devolve' as an antonym of 'evolve'. You put in a current photograph of yourself, and the software wound back the evolutionary clock. The button that started the process bore the words 'Devolve me'.

b

PS Some dictionaries may recognize this meaning. After all, it's an easy enough assumption for a learner to make (that 'devolve' is the opposite of 'evolve'.) But I've only met it in this context: http://www.open.ac.uk/darwin/devolve-me.php