perversión

Forms

perversión f (plural perversiones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin perversiō (“a turning about, inversion”), a learned word.^[2][1][3] The Latin noun is formed from pervertō (“to overturn, upset”) with the suffix -tiō.^[4][1] Corominas lists the Spanish noun without a date among the learned derivatives of the verb pervertir, which comes from the same Latin verb and is recorded from the 15th century, as is perverso.^[5]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Portuguese perversão, Galician perversión, French perversion and Italian perversione.^[1][6] The Latin verb is made of per- (“thoroughly”) and vertō (“to turn”), which goes back through Proto-Italic *wertō to Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in Enrique de Villena's translation and glosses of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442), which speaks of la perversión humana “human perversion”, the moral corruption of mankind.^[7] The first hit in a text with no later copy is in Alfonso Ortiz's letters (c. 1492–1493): Grand perversión parescería ésta “this would seem a great perversion”, said of the low being honoured above the noble, an overturning of the right order.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the noun meant the reversal of the order of words in a sentence, a figure of rhetoric, and later a wresting or distortion;^[4][8][9] Medieval Latin used it for depravity.^[4][8][9] Spanish took it in this moral sense: the 16th-century hits are religious texts on the corruption of the soul and of the true faith.^[7] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives two senses, the act of perverting and the state of error or corruption of customs, the second illustrated from Sandoval's history of Ethiopia.^[10] The Academy's 1899 edition gives the etymology and the same two senses, with the reflexive pervertirse.^[11] Today the DLE keeps only the act and effect of perverting, while Moliner and the Wikcionario add the sexual sense, an inclination or conduct that departs from the norm.^[2][3][12]

The Portuguese cognate is recorded from the 16th century.^[6][13]

Timeline

• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena uses perversión in his glosses of the Aeneid (in a copy of 1442).^[7]
• c. 1492–1493 – Alfonso Ortiz's letters, the first hit in a text without a later copy.^[7]
• 1528–1542 – Juan de Cazalla's Lumbre del alma speaks of the soul seeing its own perversión in hell.^[7]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the act of perverting and the state of moral corruption.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the etymology from Latin perversio.^[11]
• 1935 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or effect of perverting (pervertir): corruption of morals, taste or belief by bad teaching or example.^[2][3]
2. (dated) A state of error or depravity in conduct.^[10][11]
3. A sexual perversion: an inclination or practice regarded as departing from the norm.^[3][12][1]
4. A disturbance of the proper order or state of something: la perversión de una idea.^[15]

Related words

• pervertir
• perverso
• verter
• Latin perversiō
• French perversion

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. perversión
3. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perversión
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 791
6. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2557
7. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. perversión
8. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. perversión
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 771
12. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. perversión
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. perversão
14. ^ 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. perversión
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. perversión