invers

Forms

invers m or n (feminine singular inversă, masculine plural inverși, feminine/neuter plural inverse)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French inverse, with Latin inversus (“turned upside down”) as a second model.^[2][3][1] Tiktin and Scriban give Latin alone, and the DA calls it a neologism after French.^[4][5][6] The Latin word is the past participle of invertō (“to turn over, invert”), from in- and vertō (“to turn”).^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1836.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 explains invers by “taken the wrong way round”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Eminescu's “an inverse nostalgia”, felt by people who are strangers in their own town, is the DA's and MDA2's first quotation.^[6][3] Costinescu and Barcianu gloss it “turned around, reversed”.^[9][10] Mathematics gave it the phrases raport invers and invers proporțional, of two quantities one of which grows as the other shrinks, and numere inverse, numbers whose product is one.^[2][11] It is often used as an adverb, and Scriban and CADE also use it as a noun, “the opposite”.^[5][11]

Timeline

• 1836 – the first record.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it “turned around, reversed”.^[9]
• 1931 – CADE records raport invers and the noun.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Going or done in the direction opposite to the first or natural one, from the end to the start; reverse, inverse.^[2][3][1]
2. (mathematics) raport invers: a ratio between two quantities such that when one grows a number of times, the other shrinks the same number of times;^[2][12] mărimi invers proporționale “inversely proportional quantities”.^[2][12]

Adverb

1. The other way round, backwards: a număra invers “to count backwards”.^[3][11]

Noun

1. (rare) The opposite of something.^[5][11]

Related words

• inversa
• vers

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 521
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1158
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. invers
5. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 655
6. ^ a b Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. invers
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. invers
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 559
10. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 286
11. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. invers
12. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. invers