revesar

Forms

revesar (first-person singular present reveso, first-person singular preterite revesé, past participle revesado)^[1]

Etymology

The DLE and Wiktionary give it as inherited from Late Latin reversāre (“to turn back”), through Old Spanish revessar, and the REW also lists the Spanish verb, “to vomit”, under it.^[2][1][3] The Late Latin verb is formed on versō (“to turn”).^[1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of revés, and DICCA-XV calls it a derivative of that noun.^[4][5] The doublet is reversar.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese revessar “to vomit”, Catalan revessar, said of wind or current that turns round, Italian rovesciare and French reverser.^[3] errebesatu “to vomit” comes from it too.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first verbal uses in the CDH are in poems of Alfonso Álvarez de Villasandino (c. 1369 – before 1440, in a copy of about 1439), where it means to turn something upside down or to sour: ya la fiesta se revessa “the party is turning sour now”.^[6] The adjective revesado “contrary, perverse” is older: the Castigos (1293) and Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor have it.^[6][7] The sense “to vomit” is first in the Celestina (1490), in the spelling revessar.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glosses it as gomitar o rendir “to vomit or throw up”, and Covarrubias (1611) explains it as bringing back up through the mouth what one has eaten.^[4][5][8] Percyvall (1591) also gives “to overturn”.^[9] In the Americas it is recorded from 1541 in Michoacán, of a sick person who spent the night vomiting.^[10] Autoridades (1737) and every Academy edition since have kept only “to vomit”.^[7][2] Domínguez in 1846 added the nautical use “of the tide or wind, to form eddies or turn back”, which Moliner keeps as “to produce a revesa”.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 1293 – the participle revesados “perverse” in the Castigos.^[6]
• c. 1369–1440 – Villasandino uses the verb (copy of about 1439).^[6]
• 1490 – revessar “to vomit” in the Celestina.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it gomitar o rendir.^[5]
• 1541 – first record in the Americas, in Michoacán.^[10]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it.^[8]
• 1737 – Autoridades defines it as to vomit.^[7]
• 1846 – Domínguez adds the nautical sense.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To vomit, bring up what is in the stomach.^[2][12][1]
2. (nautical) Of the tide, a current or the wind: to turn back or form eddies, to produce a revesa.^[12][11]

Related words

• revés
• reversar
• revesa
• verter
• Portuguese revessar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. revesar
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. reversāre
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 791
5. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. revesar
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. revesar
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 612
8. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1264
9. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. s.v. revesar
10. ^ a b 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. revesar
11. ^ a b c Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1511
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. revesar