Etymologically
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versura

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Pronunciation

  • Ecclesiastical: /βaˈsura/[1]

Forms

versūra f (genitive versūrae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vertō (“to turn”) + -ūra, made from the stem of the participle ⟨versus⟩ and also spelt ⟨vorsūra⟩.[2][3][4] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *wertō and Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).[1] The sense “borrowing” was explained by Festus as a change of creditor: those who borrowed did not take the money home but used it to pay another lender, and so “turned” their creditor.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Terence,[4] whose proverb in eōdem lutō haesitās: vorsūrā solvēs, “you are stuck in the same mud: you will pay by borrowing”, means getting out of one difficulty by getting into another.[3]

Semantic evolution

Its Classical meaning is financial: the raising of a new loan to pay an old one, and hence any loan, as in Cicero's phrase versūram facere, “to borrow”.[3][2] Cicero says the cities had two ways of raising money, by a loan or by a tax,[2][5] and Tacitus records that such borrowing was forbidden.[3] Seneca uses it figuratively.[3] The literal sense of turning appears in Varro (the turning of leaves);[3][6] Columella and Palladius use it of the place where a ploughman turns at the end of a furrow,[3][2] Vitruvius of a corner or angle of a building or a bend in a conduit,[3][6] and Manilius of a cycle of changes in astrology.[2][5] In Medieval Latin it could mean an open field.[7][4]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence has the proverb vorsūrā solvēs.[3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of borrowing to pay debts.[3][2][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of turning.[3][4]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a corner in architecture.[3][4]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the turning place at the end of a furrow.[2][4]
  • Medieval Latin – It is used of an open field.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A turning round, rotation.[2][3]
  2. The passing through a cycle of changes.[2]
  3. The place where a ploughman turns at the end of a furrow.[2][3]
  4. An angle, corner or bend, in architecture or a conduit.[2][3]
  5. The borrowing of money to pay a debt; a loan.[2][3]
  6. (Medieval Latin) An open field.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill