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Etymology and origin of the English word reversion

Pronunciation

  • /ɹɪˈvɜːʒ(ə)n̩/, /ɹɪˈvɜːʃ(ə)n̩/[1]
  • US: /ɹɪˈvɚʒən/, /ɹəˈvɚʒən/[1]

reversion1 return; right of later possession

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1325 before 1325, Statutes of the Realm
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman reversioun via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin revertō
Etymology tree of reversion1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vertō
Latin revertor
Latin reversiō
English reversion
From the same root · reversion1
English perverse ← vertō
Latin advertō ← vertō
Latin anniversārius ← vertō
Latin āvertō ← vertō
Latin convertō ← vertō
Latin dēvertō ← vertō
Latin dīvertō ← vertō
Latin ēvertō ← vertō
Latin intervertō ← vertō
Latin invertō ← vertō
Latin obvertō ← vertō
Latin perversus ← vertō
Latin pervertō ← vertō
Latin praeverto ← vertō
Latin subvertō ← vertō
Latin trānsvertō ← vertō
Latin versiō ← vertō
Latin versō ← vertō
Latin versūra ← vertō
Latin versus ← vertō
Latin vertex ← vertō
Latin vertīgō ← vertō

Etymology

The legal word is inherited from Middle English reversioun, also reversion,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman reversioun, also revercioun and reversiun, and Old French reversion,[4][2][3] now réversion,[4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin reversiō (“a turning back, return”),[4][3][2] formed from reversus, the past participle of revertō (“to turn back”), the source of revert.[6][5][7] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1275 for the return of an estate to the grantor or his heir,[8] and British Latin also used reversiō this way, frequently from the 13th century.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An estate granted to one party and later transferable to another, or the right to succeed to it: before 1325, in the Statutes of the Realm.[4] Etymonline dates the legal word to the late 14th century,[3] and Merriam-Webster gives the 15th century as its first use.[6]

Semantic evolution

By about 1436 the word also named the return of an estate to its original owner or heirs after a grant ended.[4] Scots law used it from 1446 for the right to redeem land.[4] From the 16th century it spread beyond land to any right of obtaining something later (before 1533) and to succession to an office (1560).[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as the state of being due to be possessed after the present possessor's death, and quoted Richard II, "As were our England in reversion his".[9] A second line kept the Latin idea of turning back: returning to a place from the early 15th century,[3][7] returning to an earlier condition or belief from the late 16th century,[7] and in biology, from the mid-19th century, returning to an ancestral type.[7] The word also meant what was left of a meal from about 1450 to 1875, and more generally the rest or remainder until 1740.[4] From 1768 it could be a sum payable on a person's death, especially from life insurance.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1325 – an estate transferable to another party, or the right to succeed to it.[4]
  • c. 1436 – the return of an estate to its original owner or heirs.[4]
  • 1446 – in Scots law, a right of redemption.[4]
  • before 1450 – the action of turning something the reverse way.[4]
  • c. 1450 – the leftovers of a meal (obsolete by 1875); the rest or remainder (obsolete by 1740).[4]
  • before 1533 – the right of obtaining something at a future time.[4]
  • 1560 – succession to an office after the holder's death or retirement.[4]
  • 1698 – in mathematics, reversion of series.[4]
  • 1768 – a sum payable on a person's death.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A return to an earlier condition, practice or belief: The reforms ended in a reversion to one-party rule.[10][7]
  2. (biology) The return of an individual or group to an earlier or ancestral type, or the reappearance of such a type's features.[10][7]
  3. (law) The return of an estate to the grantor or his heirs when a grant ends; the interest in an estate that returns in this way.[10][6][4]
  4. The right of obtaining something, or of succeeding to an office, at a future time.[4][7]
  5. A sum payable on a person's death, especially from life insurance.[4][7]
  6. The act of turning something the reverse way; reversal.[10][4]
  7. (Scots law) A right to redeem land previously adjudged or pledged.[4][7]
  8. (obsolete, c. 1450–1875) What remains of a dish or meal; the rest of something.[4][7]

Word family

  • reversional
  • reversionally
  • reversionary
  • reversioner

reversion2 new version

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1755 Dodsley's Collection of Poems
Ultimate origins
English re-Middle French version
Etymology tree of reversion2
inherited borrowed derived
English version
English reversion

Etymology

The word for a new version is formed separately, from English re- + version.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A new translation of a text: 1755, in a heading in Dodsley's Collection of Poems.[4]

Semantic evolution

It also covers a new edition and a translation back into a text's original language.[4] In a letter of 1848, Rossetti used it for a drawing based on an earlier sketch, a sense the OED calls rare.[4]

Timeline

  • 1755 – a new translation or edition of a text.[4]
  • 1848 – a drawing based on an earlier sketch (rare).[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A new translation or edition of a text, or a translation back into the original language.[4]
  2. (rare) A drawing based on an earlier sketch.[4]

Usage notes

Fowler stressed that the senses of the legal and biological word "all correspond to the verb revert, & not to the verb reverse, whose noun is reversal",[3] although Collins and the OED do list a sense of reversal.[10][4] For reversion, a new version, the OED gives a long first vowel, /ˌriːˈvəːʃn/.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Reversion.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/reversion. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·