verter

Forms

verter (first-person singular present vierto, first-person singular preterite vertí, past participle vertido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vertō (“to turn, overturn; to change, convert”).^[2][3][4][1] The sense “to pour, spill”, general in Spanish since Berceo, comes from the Latin sense “to overturn”: one turns the vessel over to empty it.^[2][5] The stressed /e/ became /ie/ in the present: ⟨vierto⟩, ⟨vierte⟩.^[1][6]

The same Latin verb gave Portuguese verter, Galician verter and Judeo-Spanish verter, with the same sense “to pour out”.^[7][1][8] French verser is the same idea from the frequentative versō.^[9][1] Wiktionary names brezar “to rock a cradle” as a doublet.^[1]

The Latin verb, in Old Latin also vortō, is from Proto-Italic *wertō and Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).^[1][10] The Oxford Latin Dictionary compares Sanskrit वर्तते (vártate, “rotates”) and the Gothic verb for “to become”;^[10][1] Wiktionary adds Russian вертеть (vertetʹ, “to spin”) and the English word worth.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the Glosas Emilianenses and Silenses of about 950.^[2][3] In the Razón de amor (c. 1205) a dove pours water into wine, vertios el agua sobr'el vino; in Berceo people shed tears, vertiendo vivas lágrimas, and verter su agua is “to urinate”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for pouring and passing liquids.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades of 1739 recorded the senses “to translate” and, in Madrid, “to empty the chamber pots” at the hours fixed by ordinance.^[5] The Academy's later editions added “to reveal what was secret” (1843), the phrase verter salud “to look plump and ruddy” (1869), and “to say maxims or ideas with a hidden, usually malicious aim” (1884).^[14][15][16] The intransitive senses, of a liquid running down a slope and of a stream flowing into another, are modern.^[4][17]

Corominas notes that verter is now less popular than derramar in the sense “to spill”, and that parts of the Americas waver between verter and vertir.^[2] Its derivative vertiente “slope down which water runs” (1616) came to mean “spring” in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and southern Colombia.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses and Silenses.^[2][3]
• 1198 – uerten in an Aragonese legal document.^[6]
• c. 1205 – the Razón de amor has vertios el agua sobr'el vino.^[11]
• c. 1230 – Berceo uses it for shedding tears.^[11][12]
• 1533 – first record from the Americas, at Cuzco.^[18]
• 1573 – the derivative vertedor is first recorded.^[3]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sense “to translate”.^[5]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pour or spill a liquid, or something in small grains such as salt or flour; also reflexive: Se vertió el café sobre los papeles.^[4][1]
2. To tip or turn over a container to empty it.^[4]
3. To translate: Vertió la novela al catalán.^[4][19]
4. To express ideas or opinions, often with a malicious aim.^[4][19]
5. (intransitive) Of a liquid: to run down a slope.^[4]
6. (intransitive) Of a stream: to flow into another: El arroyo vierte en el río a dos kilómetros del pueblo.^[4]

Word family

• vertedero
• vertedor
• vertiente
• vertido

Related words

• convertir
• vértigo
• vértice
• verso
• Latin vertō

Usage notes

Verter is conjugated like entender: vierto, vertemos, vertió.^[19] Rodríguez, quoting Cuervo, condemned forms such as virtió and the infinitive vertir, made on the model of divertir.^[20][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 791
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. verter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. verter
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 467
6. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. verter
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9249
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7121
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. verser
10. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. verter
12. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 787
13. ^ 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. verter
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 740
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 790
16. ^ 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. 1084
17. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1656
18. ^ 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. verter
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. verter
20. ^ Rodríguez, Zorobabel (1875), Diccionario de chilenismos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de El Independiente, p. s.v. verter