riverso

Forms

riverso (feminine riversa, masculine plural riversi, feminine plural riverse)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian reverso and Old Italian roverso.^[2]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin reversus (“turned back”), the past participle of revertor (“to turn back, return”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and vertō (“to turn”).^[5][7][8] DELI instead derives it from reversō (“to turn over again”).^[9] Devoto notes the influence of the Italian prefix ri-.^[10]

The popular outcome of the same Latin participle is rovescio, and this word is its learned doublet.^[6][1][11] Elsewhere the participle gave French revers, Old Occitan revers and Catalan revés, which Spanish and Portuguese borrowed.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Zingarelli date the word to 1312.^[4][5] DELI's first record, from before 1321, is a lyric of Dante with the sense “lying on the back”: che disteso e riverso / mi tiene in terra, “that holds me stretched out and on my back on the ground”.^[9][12]

Semantic evolution

Dante also used the noun for a rock slide: questa vecchia roccia, / qui e altrove, tal fece riverso, “this old rock fell down in this way, here and elsewhere”.^[13][12] Old texts used the noun for the opposite of something and for a blow given with the back of the hand, which fencing manuals called riverso.^[12][5] These noun senses are now archaic or rare, as is the adjective “overturned”, although it lives on in some dialects.^[14]

The adjective “lying on one's back” stayed literary: Ariosto's Orlando lets himself fall from the bridge riverso, clasping the pagan.^[12][2] In music riverso marks a passage played backwards, from the last part;^[15] German used it as a musical direction from 1802.^[15] English borrowed the noun for a backhand blow, recorded in 1595.^[15]

Timeline

• 1312 – First record, also for the backhanded blow.^[4][15]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses riverso “on one's back”.^[9]
• First half of the 16th century – The musical sense “starting from the last part” appears.^[15]
• 1595 – English riversas, backhand blows, is recorded.^[15]
• 1802 – German uses riverso as a musical direction.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lying on one's back, supine; also slumped forwards or backwards: Lo trovarono riverso sul divano.^[4][16][17]
2. (uncommon) Overturned, upside down.^[4][16][13]

Noun

1. (archaic) The reverse or opposite of something.^[16][17][5]
2. A backhand slap or blow;^[4][16][13] di riverso, with the back of the hand.^[4][16][13]
3. (archaic) A landslide, a collapse.^[4][16][13]

Related words

• rovescio
• manrovescio
• verso
• Latin reversus

Usage notes

The adjective is now mostly literary or rare; the noun senses survive mainly in the phrase di riverso.^[14][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3269
7. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d e f g Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse