rovescio

Forms

rovescio (feminine rovescia, masculine plural rovesci, feminine plural rovesce)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian riverscio and Old Italian rivescio.^[2][3] Tommaseo also lists rinvercio and roverso, and the GDLI an old rivèxo.^[4][5]

Etymology

In DELI's view it is from Italian rovesciare (“to overturn”), a deverbal adjective and noun, and GRADIT, Devoto–Oli, Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI agree.^{[6][7][3][8][5]} Nocentini instead sees in it a noun use of Vulgar Latin *reversium, which stood for classical Latin reversus (“turned back”).^[9] Wiktionary, Treccani and Gabrielli derive it directly from the Latin participle, and Gabrielli and Devoto add that the form was influenced by the verb.^{[1][2][10][11]} C. Merlo held that rovescia, the turned-back part of a sleeve, is the feminine of the adjective, not a deverbal.^[6]

The verb itself comes from Latin reversāre (“to turn back, turn round”), through a popular Vulgar Latin *reversiāre.^[6][9] The Latin verb is formed from versō (“to turn over”), the frequentative of vertō (“to turn”), with the prefix re-, and reversus is the past participle of revertō (“to turn back”).^[9] The ⟨e⟩ of the prefix became ⟨o⟩ by assimilation to the following labial.^[9] The /rs/ of the Latin word became /ʃʃ/ through /ss/, as in vescica and ganascia, and riverso is its doublet.^[1]

The same Latin word gave French revers, Occitan revers, Catalan revés, Spanish revés and Portuguese revez.^[9] The REW holds that the Spanish and Portuguese nouns for “back side” were taken from Catalan, while the inherited Spanish revieso means “clumsy” and Portuguese revesso “stubborn”.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the phrase a riverscio, “upside down”, in Brunetto Latini, who died in 1294.^[6] The adjective “turned the opposite way” follows in the 14th-century vernacular Dialogues of Saint Gregory, where the body of an abbot that lay rovescio “on its back” turned on its side.^[6][4] Tommaseo notes that the Latin text has supinum.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old texts use the adjective mostly for a person lying on the back: Francesco da Barberino advises laying a newborn first face down and then rivescio, and Buti wrote that “the proud man falls on his back and not on his face” (il superbo cade rovescio e non boccone).^[5] Boccaccio has a rovescio “upside down” in 1348–1353, and before 1566 Caro uses it figuratively for “the wrong way round”.^[6]

The noun “reverse side” is in G. Villani before 1348, and the figurative “opposite of what is right or normal” in Varchi before 1565.^[6] Vasari named the reverse of a coin or medal in 1550, after a bold metaphorical use by Aretino in 1536, and il rovescio della medaglia came to mean the downside of a situation.^[6][13] A. F. Grazzini, before 1584, has rovescio for a sudden heavy shower, and in 1652 Lamberti used it for a backhand stroke in tennis-like games; as a tennis term it took the place of the English backhand.^[6] The figurative rovescio di fortuna, financial ruin, is recorded in 1877, and “misfortune” in Tommaseo in 1872.^[6]

The phrase alla rovescia appears as alla roverscia in 1560 and in its present form in 1841, and capire a rovescio “to misunderstand completely” in 1939–40.^[6] In music the word meant the inversion of a chord or of a theme in the late 18th century;^[14] German took it as Rovescio (1802), and French used renversé in the same sense.^[14]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini writes a riverscio “upside down”.^[6]
• 14th century – The vernacular Dialogues of Saint Gregory use the adjective.^[6]
• Before 1348 – G. Villani uses the noun for the reverse side.^[6]
• 1536 – Aretino uses the coin sense in a bold metaphor.^[6]
• 1550 – Vasari names the reverse of a coin or medal.^[6]
• 1560 – Alla roverscia is recorded.^[6]
• Before 1584 – A. F. Grazzini uses the word for a heavy shower.^[6]
• 1652 – Lamberti uses it for a backhand stroke.^[6]
• 1774 – It is first used in music for an inverted chord.^[14]
• 1877 – Rovescio di fortuna “financial collapse” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Turned the opposite way: upside-down, inside-out, reversed.^[7][13][2]
2. Of a person, lying on the back, supine; also used as an adverb: cadde rovescio sul prato.^[7][3][4]
3. (knitting) purl: punto rovescio.^[2][1]
4. (technical) Inverted: volo rovescio (inverted flight), arco rovescio (an inverted arch, used in tunnels).^[2][3]

Noun

1. The reverse or back side of something: Ha scritto il numero sul rovescio della busta.^[7][13][1]
2. The back of the hand.^[13][2]
3. (numismatics) The reverse of a coin or medal;^[13][1] il rovescio della medaglia, the downside of a situation.^[13][1]
4. (figurative) The opposite, the contrary of what is right or expected.^[7][13][1]
5. A blow with the back of the hand or of a weapon;^[8][7][1] (tennis) a backhand.^[8][7][1]
6. (knitting) A purl stitch.^[13][7]
7. A sudden, heavy downpour of rain or hail;^[8][13][1] (figurative) a shower of blows or insults: un rovescio di grandine.^[8][13][1]
8. (figurative) A setback, a reversal of fortune, especially a financial one: rovescio di fortuna.^[8][13][1]
9. (printing) In hand-set type, an upside-down sort put in temporarily for a missing letter or sign.^[7]

Word family

• rovescione
• rovescioni
• rovescino
• manrovescio

Related words

• rovesciare
• riverso
• riversare
• Latin reversus
• French revers

Usage notes

Common phrases are a rovescio and alla rovescia, “the wrong way round, upside down”, and conto alla rovescia, a countdown.^[7][10][3] Rovescio is also the first person singular present of rovesciare.^[1] DEI records a minor homograph, a long-napped woollen cloth made at Florence, documented from 1574 and named after the adjective.^[15]

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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 165
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 380
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3290