revolt

Etymology

The verb is borrowed from Middle French revolter (“to turn; to rebel”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Italian rivoltare (“to overthrow, turn round”),^[2][3][4][7] from Vulgar Latin *revolvitō (“to overturn”), a frequentative of revolvō (“to roll back, turn over”),^{[3][4][7][6][8]} from which English also has revolve and revolution.^[8] The OED instead calls the Italian verb an intensive formation of rivolgere (“to turn again, turn back”).^[2] In French the verb is recorded from 1414, in the sense "to turn", and "to rebel" from 1502.^[2] The noun is borrowed from Middle French revolte, modern révolte, recorded in French from 1501,^[2][3][9] which Etymonline describes as a back-formation from the verb or else taken from rivolta.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest English sense, now obsolete, was "to draw back from a duty or an undertaking": the OED's first example is in a letter of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1540).^[2] "To cast off allegiance, to rise against a ruler" followed in 1548, in Cooper's revision of Elyot's dictionary, Barnhart's first date for the verb.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1540s,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to 1539.^[6] The noun is recorded from 1553 in the OED and Merriam-Webster,^[2][6] the 1550s in Etymonline,^[3] and 1560 in Barnhart.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Sixteenth-century revolt covered every kind of turning away: changing sides, going over to a rival, abandoning one's religion (1560–1845) and even departing from the truth.^[2][11] Johnson's first sense of the noun was "desertion; change of sides".^[12] The sense of rising against authority became the main one.^[2] From about 1586 the noun was also used for any act of protest or defiance against established custom.^[2][9] From the late 17th century the verb developed the meaning of turning away in disgust: to rise in repugnance against something (1698), to feel disgust (1725), and to fill someone with disgust (1731).^[11][5] French and Italian had developed similar senses earlier, Italian rivoltare "to cause disgust" by 1577 and French être révolté "to feel revulsion" by 1630.^[2] Weekley notes that the strong sense of revolting, "disgusting", dates from about 1800,^[13] and Hoad dates it to the 19th century;^[5] Shakespeare had already used the noun once for revulsion of appetite, in Twelfth Night.^[2]

Timeline

• 1539 – first known use of the verb, according to Merriam-Webster.^[6]
• 1540 – verb, to draw back from a duty (obsolete).^[2]
• 1548 – verb, to rise in rebellion; to cast off allegiance.^[2][4]
• 1553 – noun, an uprising, insurrection.^[2]
• 1560 – verb, to go over to another faith (obsolete).^[2]
• c. 1586 – noun, an act of protest or defiance.^[2]
• 1602 – in revolt.^[2]
• 1725 – verb, to feel disgust.^[11]
• 1731 – verb, to fill with disgust.^[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An attempt by a group of people to overthrow or resist their rulers or government, often by force; a rebellion or uprising: The tax provoked a revolt in the northern provinces.
2. A refusal to accept or obey something; strong dissent: a revolt among the party's backbenchers.
3. in revolt: rebelling.

Verb

1. To rise against those in power; to rebel.
2. To refuse to accept or obey authority or established custom.
3. To fill someone with disgust: The smell from the drains revolted the visitors.
4. To feel disgust; to turn away in revulsion.

Word family

• revolter

Related words

• revolting
• revolve
• revolution
• revolver
• vault
• voluble
• volume

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray