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aversor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word aversor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (vertō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin verto
Latin deverto
Latin everto
Latin eversio
Latin revertor
Latin obverto
Latin subverto
Latin averto
Latin aversor
Latin perverto
Latin perversus
Latin inverto

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aːˈwɛr.sɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈvɛr.sor][1]

Forms

āversor (present infinitive āversārī, perfect active āversātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Plautus has the old spelling avorsor.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a frequentative from Latin āvertō (“to turn away”) + -tō, formed on the participle ⟨āvers-⟩.[2][3][1] The verb āvertō is ab- with vertō (“to turn”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it intransitively, “stay where you are, don't turn away”, and Ennius in the Annals transitively, of people who will always turn away from someone's face.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to turn away in disgust, horror or shame, as Cicero's guilty man who hesitates, turns away and blushes, and so to recoil from or shun a person or sight.[2][4] With actions as object it means to feel aversion for, as Ovid's “I loathe her character, I love her body”, and with an infinitive to refuse to do something.[2] It also means to refuse to accept, reject, as Livy's people who rejected prayers out of shame or fear.[2] Church Latin glosses it to turn away from, avoid, repel, hate.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of turning away.[2][6]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of turning away from someone.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a man who turns away and blushes.[4][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of rejecting prayers.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To turn away in disgust or horror, recoil.[2][4][1]
  2. To turn away from, shun.[2][5][1]
  3. To feel or express aversion for; to refuse to do something.[2][1]
  4. To refuse to accept, reject.[2][1]

Word family

  • āversābilis
  • āversātiō
  • āversātrīx

Usage notes

A separate noun āversor, āversōris, an embezzler, also from āvertō, occurs in Cicero's Verrines, where Verres is the embezzler of public money.[2][4][3][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Aversor.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/aversor. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·