The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Emerge \E*merge"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Emerged; p. pr. & vb.
   n. Emerging.] [L. emergere, emersum; e out + mergere to
   dip, plunge. See Merge.]
   To rise out of a fluid; to come forth from that in which
   anything has been plunged, enveloped, or concealed; to issue
   and appear; as, to emerge from the water or the ocean; the
   sun emerges from behind the moon in an eclipse; to emerge
   from poverty or obscurity. "Thetis . . . emerging from the
   deep." --Dryden.
   [1913 Webster]

         Those who have emerged from very low, some from the
         lowest, classes of society.              --Burke.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

emerge
    v 1: come out into view, as from concealment; "Suddenly, the
         proprietor emerged from his office"
    2: come out of; "Water issued from the hole in the wall"; "The
       words seemed to come out by themselves" [syn: issue,
       emerge, come out, come forth, go forth, egress]
    3: become known or apparent; "Some nice results emerged from the
       study"
    4: come up to the surface of or rise; "He felt new emotions
       emerge"
    5: happen or occur as a result of something [syn: come forth,
       emerge]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

94 Moby Thesaurus words for "emerge":
   accrue from, appear, arise, arise from, bail out, be contingent on,
   be due to, be revealed, become known, become manifest,
   become visible, break cover, break forth, break out, break through,
   bud from, burst forth, come, come forth, come forward, come from,
   come in sight, come out, come out of, come to hand, come to light,
   come up, crop out, crop up, debouch, depend on, derive,
   derive from, descend from, develop, disembogue, effuse, emanate,
   emanate from, emerge from, ensue from, enter, erupt, evolve, exit,
   extrude, fade in, find vent, flow, flow from, follow from,
   germinate from, grow from, grow out of, hang on, happen,
   heave in sight, hinge on, issue, issue forth, issue from, jump out,
   leak out, look forth, loom, materialize, ooze out, originate,
   originate in, outcrop, peep out, proceed, proceed from, protrude,
   rear its head, rise, run out, sally, sally forth, see the light,
   show, show up, spring, spring from, sprout from, stem, stem from,
   stream forth, strike the eye, surface, transpire, turn on,
   turn out, turn up