interverto

Forms

intervertō (present infinitive intervertere, perfect active intervertī, supine interversum); third conjugation^[1] Older spelling intervortō, in Plautus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin inter- + vertō (“to turn”).^[2][3][1] vertō goes back to Proto-Italic *wertō and Proto-Indo-European *wert-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD record it first in Plautus, in the sense “to cheat, swindle”: unde sumam? quem intervortam?, “where shall I get it? whom shall I swindle?”^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Plautus also uses it with an ablative, “to cheat (someone) of”, as Gellius later does of cheating an owner of his possession.^[2][4] From cheating it came to mean to embezzle: Cicero speaks of a royal gift that was embezzled, Suetonius of public revenues, and Frontinus of falsified accounts.^[2][4] Tacitus says that Vitellius was believed to have squandered nine hundred million sesterces in a few months.^[2]

Cicero also uses it of a promised consulship that was set aside and of an aedileship passed over, and the jurists of rights and possession being cancelled.^[2] The literal sense, “to turn aside, change the direction of”, is found in Vitruvius, of grooves in a triglyph, and in the Digest, of diverting an aqueduct;^[2][4] Seneca uses it of upright characters that became perverted.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of cheating and swindling.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of embezzling and of setting a promise aside.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of changing the direction of grooves.^[2][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it figuratively of characters perverted.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of squandering money.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To defraud, swindle, cheat;^[2][4] with an ablative, to cheat (someone) of.^[2][4]
2. To embezzle, misappropriate, purloin; to falsify (accounts).^[2][4]
3. To misuse, squander.^[2][4]
4. To set aside, cancel, revoke.^[2]
5. To turn aside, change the direction of, divert;^[2][4] (figurative) to change for the worse, pervert.^[4][2]

Usage notes

Ancient synonym lists explain it with subripuit and subtraxit.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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 e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de