rovesciare

Forms

rovesciare (first-person singular present rovèscio, first-person singular past historic rovesciài, past participle rovesciàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms are rivesciare and riversciare;^[2][3][4] Boiardo wrote roversare, which Berni corrected to rovesciare.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *reversiāre, a popular variant of Latin reversāre (“to turn back, turn round”).^[5][6][7][1] The Latin verb is formed with re- from versō (“to keep turning”), the frequentative of vertō (“to turn”).^[6][8] The learned doublet, taken from Latin, is riversare.^[1][5]

The first ⟨o⟩ comes from the ⟨e⟩ of the prefix: Nocentini puts it down to assimilation to the following labial ⟨v⟩, and Devoto calls it the regular Tuscan outcome of an unstressed ⟨e⟩ before ⟨v⟩, as in rovello and dovere.^[6][9]

The Latin verb has outcomes across the Romance languages: Romanian revărsa (“to overflow”), French reverser (“to pour back”), Occitan reversar (“to overturn”), Catalan revessar (“to change direction”), Spanish revesar (“to vomit”) and Portuguese revessar, and it was borrowed as Basque errebesatu (“to vomit”).^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the old form rivesciare to the 13th century, and Giordano da Pisa uses it in 1305–1306 for the troubles God “pours down” on the world.^[7][5][3] The Fiore, of the late 13th or early 14th century, has the sense “to throw down what stood upright”.^[5] The Diatessaron translation says that Jesus overturned (rivesciò) the seats of the dove-sellers in the temple.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Giovanni Villani, before 1348, used the verb for pouring something down in abundance, and Dante already used it for a river spilling out.^[5] “To turn upside down or inside out” appears in Franco Sacchetti before 1400.^[5] Later uses include knocking down walls and cities in military writing, and the overthrow of a government.^[5][7][11] The pronominal rovesciarsi meant “to fall back” in Apostolo Zeno, before 1750, and “to flock in great numbers” only in the 20th century.^[5]

The deverbal rovescio has its own history: a rovescio is in Boccaccio, the reverse of a coin in Vasari in 1550, a sudden downpour before 1584, and the backhand stroke in 1652; as a tennis term it took the place of English backhand.^[5] Rovesciata, the bicycle kick in football, is dated 1934 by DELI and 1913 by Nocentini.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 13th century – The old form rivesciare is recorded.^[7][6]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the verb for a river pouring out.^[5]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses rivesciare.^[5]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses rovesciare for pouring down.^[5]
• Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it for turning upside down.^[5]
• 1550 – Vasari uses rovescio for the reverse of a coin.^[5]
• 1652 – Rovescio is recorded for the backhand stroke.^[5]
• 1853 – D'Ayala records the military sense “to knock down”.^[5]
• 1934 – Rovesciata appears in football.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To turn upside down, overturn, turn over: L'onda ha rovesciato il canotto.^[7][12][13]
2. To turn inside out: rovesciare un calzino.^[7][12]
3. (figurative) To reverse completely: rovesciare i ruoli.^[7][12][13]
4. (figurative) To overthrow, bring down: rovesciare un dittatore.^[7][12][2]
5. To knock over something standing upright: Ho rovesciato la lampada con il gomito.^[7][13][14]
6. To tip back a part of the body: rovesciare la testa sul cuscino.^[7][12][13]
7. To spill or pour out from a container: Ha rovesciato il caffè sul giornale.^[7][13][14]
8. (figurative) To heap blame, insults and the like on someone.^[7][13][14]
9. (military, dated) To break down enemy defences; to rout.^[7][14]
10. (football) To make a bicycle kick (rovesciata).^[7]
11. (euphemistic) To vomit.^[7][14][2]
12. (rovesciarsi) To capsize, tip over or fall; of liquids, to spill; of rain or crowds, to pour down or pour in.^[14][2]

Word family

• rovescio
• rovescia
• rovesciamento
• rovesciata
• rovesciabile
• rovesciatore
• rovescione
• arrovesciare

Related words

• riversare
• riverso
• Latin reversō
• French reverser

Usage notes

Rovesciare il sacco is the same as vuotare il sacco, to tell everything one knows.^[12][14][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3290
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 162
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli