Etymologically
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obverto

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Forms

obvertō (present infinitive obvertere, perfect active obvertī, supine obversum); third conjugation[1] Marius Victorinus records the spelling ovvertō.[2]

Etymology

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

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Plautus, who has it twice.[2][4] Lewis & Short quote him of turning one's horns towards someone.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is to turn something so that it faces a certain way: Lucretius has a mirror turned in any direction, and the Bellum Africum soldiers who face about to resist the enemy.[3] Cicero's Aratea uses it of sailors turning a ship out to sea.[3] It is also to turn weapons or troops against someone, as in Livy, and to turn oneself or one's mind to something, as Ovid of a cruel mind.[3] Lewis & Short note that neither Cicero's speeches and letters nor Caesar use it.[5] Ancient glosses explain it as turning to another side.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of turning the horns towards someone.[5][2][4]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a mirror.[3][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of turning weapons against the enemy.[3][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of turning one's mind.[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To turn something so as to face a certain way; in the passive, to turn oneself, face about; of sailors, to turn out to sea.[3][5][1]
  2. To turn weapons or troops against someone; in the passive, to oppose oneself to.[3][5][1]
  3. To turn oneself or one's mind to something.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press