divertir

Forms

divertir (first-person singular present divierto, first-person singular preterite divertí, past participle divertido)^[1] Early texts also have divirtir and diuertir;^[2][3] devertir is recorded in 16th-century Mexico.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin dīvertō (“to turn aside, separate”).^[4][5][6][1] The DLE glosses the Latin verb as “to lead different ways”, and Corominas as “to turn away”, whence “to distract oneself”.^[6][4] Vox dates the borrowing to the 16th century.^[7]

The same Latin verb was borrowed as Portuguese divertir, Catalan divertir, French divertir and Italian divertire, and English has divert.^[8][9][1]

dīvertō is formed from dis- (“apart”) and vertō (“to turn”), the source of the inherited verter.^[10][1][4] Gómez de Silva explains the sense “amuse” as turning the mind away from serious things towards pleasure.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the end of the 16th century (Mendoza, Saint Teresa) in the DCECH and to about 1525 in the BDELC.^[4][5] The CDH has earlier hits: Enrique de Villena's glossed translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442) says that drink so takes up a man's faculties that he cannot divirtir “turn his mind” to anything else.^[2] In a royal letter of 1485 Ferdinand writes that, busy with the war of Granada, no nos podemos diuertir a otra cosa “we cannot turn to anything else”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were “turn aside, divert”, of the mind or of a course; medical texts of the 1490s speak of diverting a flow of blood or humours.^[2] Cervantes still uses divertirse for straying from the subject, beside the sense “entertain”.^[12] In 1732 the Diccionario de Autoridades gave first “distract someone's attention”, then “entertain, delight” and the military phrase divertir al enemigo “draw off the enemy's forces”.^[13] Cuervo quotes classical authors who divert a river or a current.^[14] In 1855 Baralt defended the sense “turn aside” against the suspicion of Gallicism and regretted that it was falling out of use.^[15] Today the sense “amuse” prevails; the others are dated or technical.^[6][1][7]

Timeline

• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena's translation of the Aeneid has divirtir.^[2]
• 1485 – a letter of Ferdinand the Catholic has diuertir, the earliest record not known only from a later copy.^[2]
• c. 1495 – the Lilio de medicina speaks of diverting a flow of blood.^[2]
• c. 1525 – the date of first record in the BDELC.^[5]
• 1576 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[3]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to turne aside”.^[16]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “distract” and “entertain”.^[13]
• 17th century – the noun diversión is first recorded.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To entertain or amuse;^[1] (reflexive) to have fun: Nos divertimos mucho en la boda.^[6][1]
2. (transitive, dated) To turn aside, divert or draw away;^[1] (reflexive) to stray.^[6][1]
3. (medicine) To direct a bodily fluid elsewhere.^[6]
4. (military) To draw the enemy's attention to other points so as to divide and weaken his forces.^[6]

Word family

• divertido
• diversión
• divertimiento

Related words

• verter
• diverso
• Latin dīvertō
• English divert

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. divertir
3. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. devertir
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 791
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. verter
6. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. divertir
7. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. divertir
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2317
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 231
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dīuertō
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 236
12. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 426
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 316
14. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 1292
15. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 243
16. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 121