revolver

Forms

revolver (first-person singular present revuelvo, first-person singular preterite revolví, past participle revuelto)^[1] Old Spanish and classical texts usually spell it rebolver, as they spell the simple verb bolver.^[2][3] It is conjugated like volver, with the present revuelvo and the participle revuelto.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin revolvō (“to roll back; to turn over in the mind”).^[5][1][6] Corominas and the BDELC treat it in the article on volver, and DICCA-XV calls it a derivative of that verb.^[2][7][8] Autoridades described it as the simple verb with a prefix, which gives it the same irregular forms.^[4]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese revolver, Asturian revolver and Italian rivolgere.^[6][9] The English verb revolve is a cognate with a different meaning.^[1]

The Latin verb is re- (“back, again”) plus volvō (“to roll, turn”).^[1][10] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *welu-e/o- and a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to wind”, and Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind”), with Ancient Greek εἰλύω (eilúō, “to enfold”) among its cognates.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and the BDELC date it to Berceo (1220–1250).^[2][7] In the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236) the saint threatens to put men in chains if they want to revolver “stir up” quarrels with Christians, and in the Duelo de la Virgen the Virgin sees what the traitors were revolviendo “plotting”.^[12][13] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–1250) already has the participle in rebuelto el anno “when the year has come round”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has most of the modern senses: turning a stone round, winding a cord, wheeling round on the enemy, and stirring up peoples and wars.^[14] In the Poema de Alfonso XI fortune's wheel se rebolbió “turned”.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 gave three entries: to move a thing from one side to the other, to go about with gossip causing quarrels, and among horsemen to wheel the horse back towards where it came from.^[3] Autoridades added wrapping oneself up in something.^[4] The 1884 dictionary lists searching through things, pondering and causing disturbances.^[15]

In the Canary Islands revolver a sick or old person means to look after them, recorded by Millares in 1907.^[16] The derivative revuelta “turmoil, revolt” is recorded from about 1280.^[2]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita has the participle rebuelto.^[12]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo uses revolver for stirring up quarrels.^[12][7]
• 1254–1280 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for turning, winding and stirring up war.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin revolvo and misceo.^[8]
• 1526 – first record in the Americas, in Cuba: ni revuelvan ruidos “nor stir up brawls”.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the horseman's sense.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin revolvere.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To stir, move something from side to side or round and round: Revuelve la salsa para que no se pegue.^[5][1][18]
2. (transitive, also reflexive) To wrap something in something else.^[5][1]
3. (transitive, also reflexive) To turn and face the enemy in order to attack.^[5]
4. (transitive) To rummage through things, moving and separating them: Revolvió los cajones buscando las llaves.^[5][1]
5. (transitive) To disturb, unsettle; to stir up unrest and sedition.^[5][1]
6. (transitive) To turn something over in one's mind, ponder.^[5][1]
7. (also intransitive, reflexive) Of a rider: to turn the horse round quickly in a small space.^[5][3]
8. (transitive, also reflexive) Of a thing: to turn a full circle back to its starting point.^[5][1]
9. (transitive) To upset the order of things, jumble them.^[5][1]
10. (transitive, also reflexive) To upset the stomach.^[5]
11. (transitive) To set someone against another person: La revolvieron con su hermana.^[5]
12. (Canary Islands) To look after a sick or elderly person.^[16]

Word family

• revuelta
• revolvimiento

Related words

• revoltijo
• revoltoso
• revoltura
• revolución
• revuelto
• volver
• revólver
• Latin revolvō

Usage notes

The handgun is a separate word, revólver, stressed on the second syllable: Spanish took it from English revolver, a derivative of revolve, in the Academy's dictionary from 1884.^[2][7] Set phrases include revolver el avispero “to stir up the hornets' nest”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 839
3. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1248
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 614
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. revolver
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. revolvere
7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. volver
8. ^ a b 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. revolver
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5686
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. reuoluō
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. volvō
12. ^ 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. revolver
13. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 666
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. revolver
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 933
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. revolver
17. ^ 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. regolver
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. revolver