adversity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English adversite,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman adversité, also averseté, and Old French aversite, later adversite,^[5][6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin adversitās,^[5][4][8] formed from adversus (“turned against, hostile”), the source of adverse, and the suffix -tās.^[5][4][6] The Latin adjective is the past participle of advertō (“to turn toward”), from ad- (“to”) and vertō (“to turn”),^[6][9] from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Adverse fortune; misfortune, distress, hardship: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle, in the phrase in aduersite & i prosperite.^[5][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1200.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In classical Latin adversitās was a medical word for the power of counteracting, as of an antidote; the senses "misfortune" and "hostility" developed in post-classical Latin.^[5][4] The Anglo-Norman word already meant adverse fortune and hardship by 1145 in the OED's dating (1155 in the Anglo-Norman Dictionary), and also opposition or hostility.^[5][10] English took over the sense of misfortune first; an individual misfortune, often in the plural, follows in 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.^[5][2] The sense "opposition, contrariness", from the Wycliffite Bible of about 1382, was rare after the 15th century and died out in the 18th,^[5][8] and "perversity of nature", taken from French by Caxton in 1489, did not outlast 1609.^[5] Johnson (1755) quoted Shakespeare's "Sweet are the uses of adversity" from As You Like It.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – misfortune, hardship, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5][2]
• 1340 – a single misfortune, often in the plural.^[5][2]
• c. 1382 – opposition, contrariness (obsolete by 1763).^[5]
• 1489 – perversity of nature, in Caxton (obsolete by 1609).^[5]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as "affliction; calamity".^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A state of serious difficulty or misfortune; hardship or distress: She kept her humour through years of adversity.^[12][4][5]
2. A particular misfortune or setback; often in the plural.^[12][5][8]
3. (obsolete, 1382–1763) Opposition; contrariness.^[5][8]

Related words

• adverse
• adversary
• averse
• advert

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins