obversor

Forms

obversor (present infinitive obversārī, perfect active obversātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- (“before, against”) + versor (“to move about”).^[2][1][3] versor is the deponent of versō (“to turn often”), a frequentative of vertō (“to turn”).^[2][1] Priscian records an active form obversō, which the TLL thinks was probably invented.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's examples begin with Livy, who tells of soldiers loitering about while living on a king's pay.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to move about where one can be seen, to go to and fro, as in Livy's report that many were openly about in Carthage.^[2][4] It is also to get in someone's way: Seneca asks why a cough or a dog crossing our path should drive us to rage.^[2] Of ideas and images it means to appear before the mind's eye: Livy asks whether the memory of a night did not rise before them.^[2] Church Latin glosses it oppose, withstand, resist.^[5]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of soldiers loitering and of a memory.^[2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger of a dog crossing one's path.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move about in view, go to and fro; to get in someone's way.^[2][4]
2. Of ideas or images, to appear before the eyes or mind, haunt.^[2][1]
3. To oppose, withstand, resist.^[5][1]

Related words

• versō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de