renverser

Forms

renverser^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French re- + enverser (1119), an Old French verb meaning “to lay on the back, to turn over”, which was derived from the old adjective envers (“on one's back, the wrong way”) (see envers²).^[2][3][4][5] Bloch and Wartburg, and Wiktionary, take the old verb instead from a Vulgar Latin *inversō, which they say also survives in Old Occitan enversar and in some Italian dialects.^[6][1][3] The FEW files the word under Latin inversus (“turned over”).^[7]

Littré notes that reverser was also used in a similar sense.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first, isolated record (1280), in a document on the cloth industry of Flanders, has the narrow sense “to shear cloth on the reverse side”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In 1316 tances renversees are tench prepared by turning the inside outwards.^[2] From the 16th century the verb means to turn a thing so that its top is at the bottom: in 1559 Amyot writes of someone who renversa la couppe holding the poison.^[2][8] The senses “to tilt backwards” (about 1440, yeux renversés) and “to make go the opposite way” (1572) followed, and the reflexive se renverser “to throw oneself back” is in Rabelais (1534).^[2][3]

Figurative uses grew in the 15th and 16th centuries: “to damage deeply” (about 1480), “to upset completely” (1538) and, in Descartes (1637), to overturn received ideas.^[2][3] About 1500 Commynes writes of houses that fell et se renversoient, and Molière has renverser tout cet obstacle (1671).^[2] In 1675 Madame de Sévigné uses it for “to astonish”, the sense behind the adjective renversant (1830).^[2][3]

In politics one spoke of overthrowing a ministry from 1793, and of bringing down a government by a vote from 1875.^[3] The verb also took technical senses: a fugue renversée in music (1705), the tide that renverse (1868) and the engineers' renverser la vapeur “to reverse the steam” (1861), used figuratively since 1952.^[2][3][5] Spilling the contents of a vessel is recorded from Hugo (1832).^[2]

Timeline

• 1280 – Renverser “to shear on the reverse side” appears in a Flemish cloth-making document.^[2][3]
• 1316 – The participle is used of fish turned inside out, in the Roman du comte d'Anjou.^[2][3]
• c. 1440 – It means “to tilt backwards”.^[2][3]
• 1486 – First record of the agent noun renverseur.^[6]
• 1534 – Rabelais uses se renverser “to throw oneself back”.^[2][3]
• 1538 – Estienne records the sense “to upset completely”; renversement is first recorded the same year.^[2][6]
• 1572 – Amyot uses it for “to make go the opposite way”.^[2][3]
• 1675 – Madame de Sévigné uses it for “to astonish”.^[2][3]
• 1793 – A ministry is said to be overthrown.^[3]
• 1832 – Hugo uses it for spilling the contents of a vessel.^[2]
• 1861 – Renverser la vapeur appears in engineering.^[2][3]
• 1868 – Jules Verne uses it intransitively of the sea changing direction.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To turn something so that its top is at the bottom, to turn upside down.^[9][10][1]
2. To reverse the order or direction of something: renverser les termes d'une proposition.^[9] Renverser la vapeur: to reverse the steam, and figuratively to change course completely.^[9][5]
3. (intransitive, of the tide) To change direction: la marée renverse.^[9][11][1]
4. To knock someone to the ground, or to run over someone with a vehicle: Le cycliste a été renversé par un camion.^[9][1]
5. To knock something over, and by extension to spill a liquid: Il a renversé son thé.^[9][1]
6. (figurative) To bring down or overthrow; in particular to force a minister or government out by a vote of no confidence.^[9][3]
7. (figurative, familiar) To astonish someone.^[9][2]
8. To tilt the head or body backwards.^[9][2]
9. Se renverser: to lean or throw oneself back, or to overturn.^[1][3]

Word family

• renverse
• renversement
• renversant
• renversable

Related words

• verser
• envers²
• Latin inversus

Usage notes

The noun renverse (15th century) now survives only in the phrase à la renverse “backwards, on one's back”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 792a
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)