Language Of Confusion: Verse, Part II

More on all the words related to verse, which is from the Proto Indo European wer-, to turn or bend. Once again, this week’s words have been etymologized before, but it’s not like anyone can stop me.
 
Versus we kind of looked at last week since it’s the Latin version of verse. In English, it showed up in the mid fifteenth century, as legal terminology—hence why it stayed in its Latin form. It’s from the classical Latin versus, obviously, meaning turned towards or against. Its verb form is vertere, to turn, and that’s from the PIE wer-, turn or bend. If legalese wasn’t so entwined with Latin, it would probably just be verse.
 
Next, version, which looks like it’s related to verse  though I have a hard time imagining how. Well, might as well see why. It showed up in the late sixteenth century from the French version (same meaning), which is from the Medieval Latin versionem, a translation or a turning. It also comes from vertere, so because a translation was a different “turn” of something, we have version. I guess that makes sense, but still…
 
Versatile showed up in the seventeenth century, originally meaning something not being constant before it changed to “able to do many things well” in the mid eighteenth century. It comes from the classical Latin versatilis, versatile, and it is from the verb versare, to turn or to engage. It is indeed related to vertere. It’s what’s known as a frequentative version of the word—a verb of continuing action, like to wrestle is a frequentative of to wrest. I guess being versatile requires a lot of turns.
 
Now for more words that end in verse. Universe showed up in the mid sixteenth century, coming from the Old French univers and before that the classical Latin universum, the universe. The uni- is from unus, one, and the rest is versus. That means the universe is… one turn??? Funnily enough, university is actually an older word, having shown up in the fourteenth century. It’s from the Anglo French université/Old French universite, from the Medieval Latin universitatem, from universus, whole or entire (hence universe). It might still seem weird for university to come from that, but as it turns out, it’s from a Latin phrase, universitas magistrorum et scholarium: community of masters and scholars. A university is a “community”.

Diverse is kind of weird since it used to be spelled divers, but no, it is not the plural of diver. With the e at the end, it showed up in the late fourteenth century while divers showed up in the late thirteenth century [https://www.etymonline.com/word/divers] from the classical Latin diversus, different [https://translate.google.com/?sl=la&tl=en&text=diversus&op=translate]. It’s a mix of the prefix dis-, meaning aside [https://www.etymonline.com/word/dis-] here, and versus, so diverse is to turn aside. Somehow. 

 
Finally, controversy. It showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning a debate of “contrary opinions”. It’s from the Old French controversie and classical Latin controversia, controversy. The verb form is controversus, a mix of contra, against, and versus. A controversy is a turning against. How sensible.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Dictionary of Medieval Latin
Fordham University

Language of Confusion: Even More Versed

Recap: Verse, like Kevin Bacon, is in freaking everything. Like many words, it comes from the Latin word for “turn” and the slight differences parts of speech give rise to both –vert and –verse words. Such as…

Perverse: showed up in the fourteenth century just after pervert It comes from the Old French pervers, unnatural, and the classical Latin perversus, turned away or contrary (as in, turned from what is “right”). Latin also gives us pervertere, overturn or corrupt, and the origin word for pervert. It is a mix of the prefix per-, meaning away, and vertere, turn, making it “turn away”. It’s almost exclusively used in the figurative sense of course.

Adverse: came about in the late fourteenth centuryfrom the Old French avers and classical Latin adversus/advertere, turned toward or facing. The ad- prefix means “to”. It’s a little weird that “turned toward” means against, but it kind of makes sense if you think of someone who’s turned toward you as facing in the opposite direction. And we can’t forget advertand advertise, both of which showed up in the fifteenth century. The latter became something we should all be quite familiar with because I actually covered it in a post not three months ago : ).

Averse: this is another one I covered previously. Although it sounds like adverse, they aren’t more related than any of the other –verse words. Like avert, it comes from the Old French avertir and classical Latin avertere. The prefix is similar to ad-, but actually from ab- (away) rather than ad-. Since averse means to be turned off from something, “turned away” makes sense.

Inverse: both inverseand invertshowed up in the fifteenth century and can be traced to the Latin inversus/invertere. The in- prefix means in or on in this case, making it “turn in”, which can be applied to mean the upside down or inside out definitions we know it as.

Subvert: there’s no real accepted –verse version of this word. It’s just subvert, which showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Middle Frenchsubvertir and classical Latin subvertere. The sub- prefix means under, so it’s “turn under”, kind of similar to the word that’s a synonym for undermine.

Controversy: from the classical Latin controversia/controversus, or “turned against”, which makes sense considering that contro- means against. Controvert is technically a word, but it’s considered a back-formation (basically they copied the vert- from other words rather than take it from another language).

Introvert/extravert: I put these two together because they’re opposite versions of the same thing. I doubt the etymology will be surprising either. “Turn inward” and “turn outward”, as theirprefixesmean. Oh, and there’s ambiverttoo.

Anniversary: thisshouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s a mix of annualand vertere, or a turn of a year.

Obverse: basically means facing or the front of somethingand is the opposite of reverse (as in, the reverse side of something). The ob- prefix means towards, in this case as the front would be towards something.

Vertigo: it’s actually a Latin word for dizzinessthat we use in English. It comes directly from vertere.

Wow. That’s a lot of words. It’s good that we’re only going back to the Latin origins because if you go to Proto Indo European, there are even more.

Oh and happy Die Hard 5 release day! Or Valentine's Day. Whatever.

Sources

Dictionary.com

Online EtymologyDictionary

Orbis Latinus

Google Translate