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Etymology and origin of the English word vert

Pronunciation

vert1 green; forest vegetation

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1325 before 1325, a cookery recipe collection
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman vert via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin viridis

Etymology

The word for green and for green forest growth is inherited from Middle English vert, also verte and verd,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vert and Old French vert, verte, also chiefly Anglo-Norman verd,[2][4][5] which meant green, foliage and green cloth,[5][6] from Latin viridis (“green”).[4][5][7][8][9] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and Collins relate the Latin adjective to vireō (“to be green”).[7][10][11] The same Latin word gave Italian verde, Spanish verde, Portuguese verde and Catalan verd,[4][9] and English verdant and verdure.[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, green, in the name of a green-coloured dish, vert desire, in an English cookery collection from before 1325;[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to the early 14th century.[5] The noun is recorded in the forest laws from before 1450,[2] and the OED's first dated record is from 1455, in the Rolls of Parliament, in the phrase vert and venison.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval forest law vert was everything green that grew in a forest and could hide deer, and it was usually paired with venison, the game.[4][2][12] Johnson (1755) still defined it this way, after the jurist Cowell.[13] From this came the right to cut green trees or shrubs in a forest, recorded from 1639 and now archaic.[4] As a colour word it was used from the 15th century for green and for a green pigment,[2][4] and it survives as the heraldic name of the tincture green.[4][3][11] In Sussex dialect the adjective survived in field names such as the Lower Vert Field at Selmeston.[14]

Timeline

  • before 1325 – green, in the cookery dish vert desire.[2]
  • 1449 – the colour green, also as a heraldic tincture.[2] The OED's first record of the heraldic sense is from about 1507.[4]
  • before 1450 – under forest law, the trees and undergrowth bearing green leaves.[2] The OED dates the same Forest Laws text before 1500.[4]
  • 1455 – vert and venison, the vegetation and game of a forest.[4][2]
  • 1481 – a green colour or pigment (obsolete by 1582).[4]
  • 1598 – nether vert, over vert and special vert, kinds of forest growth in forest law (obsolete by 1727).[4]
  • 1639 – the right to cut green trees or shrubs in a forest.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (heraldry) The tincture green.[11][3][4]
  2. (law) The green growth of a forest, especially as cover or food for deer.[3][4][11]
  3. (archaic) The right to cut green wood, or sometimes to pasture animals, in a forest.[3][4][11]

Adjective

  1. (heraldry) Green: a field vert.[11][4]

vert2 to turn; a convert

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1578 burgh records of Aberdeen
Borrowed from
Latin verto
Ultimate origin
Latin vertō
Etymology tree of vert2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vertō
English vert
From the same root · vert2
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 revertor ← vertō
Latin subvertō ← vertō
Latin trānsvertō ← vertō
Latin versiō ← vertō
Latin versō ← vertō
Latin versūra ← vertō
Latin versus ← vertō
Latin vertebra ← vertō
Latin vertex ← vertō
Latin vertīgō ← vertō

Etymology

The verb meaning to turn is borrowed from Latin vertō (“to turn, overturn”),[4][5][10][3] from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).[5] The noun meaning a convert has a separate source: it is a shortening of convert,[5][3][10] or of convert and pervert,[4][9] and the intransitive verb, to become a convert, comes from that noun.[4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To turn up or root up the ground: 1578, in the burgh records of Aberdeen, a sense soon obsolete.[4] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1570s,[5] while the Shorter Oxford puts it in the late 15th century, first in the sense "reverse".[10]

Semantic evolution

From about 1586 the verb meant to turn something in a particular direction, or to twist it out of its normal position, and that is now its use in pathology and anatomy;[4][10] intransitively, it meant to change direction or dart about, from 1859, in Meredith.[4] The noun, a person who leaves one church for another, was colloquial British English by 1864,[5][4] used especially of converts to Roman Catholicism,[4][10] and Etymonline adds those who left the Church of England.[5] The verb to vert, to become such a convert, followed in 1888.[4] The Shorter Oxford marks both as now rare.[10] W. H. Auden used vert as an adjective, turning, in 1947.[4]

Timeline

  • 1578 – to turn up the ground (obsolete).[4]
  • c. 1586 – to turn something in a direction, or twist it out of its normal position.[4]
  • 1859 – intransitive, to change direction.[4]
  • 1864 – noun, a convert from one church to another, especially to Roman Catholicism.[4][5]
  • 1888 – to become a convert.[4]
  • 1947 – adjective, turning, in Auden.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To turn or bend something from one direction to another; in pathology, to twist out of the normal position.[3][4][10]
  2. (rare) To become a convert, especially to Roman Catholicism.[3][4][10]

Noun

  1. (rare) A person who changes religion or church, especially to Roman Catholicism.[3][4][10]

Usage notes

A third vert, a shortening of vertical, has been used since 1979 for a tall, steep, curved ramp such as a half-pipe, and since 1987 as an adjective for skateboarding done on such ramps.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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 36 37 38 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vert.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/vert. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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