My crazy post:
I've always found interesting the words such as pervert, convert, subvert and vertex, all have a "vert" in in them. According to my trusty crusty Aust Oxford Dictionary, it comes from the Latin word "verto", meaning "to turn". "Vertice" in Itailian is summit or top (Gem Collins Italian).
What is interesting is the verb "vrtiti" (pronounced roughly "ver-ti-ti") in Macedonian and other Southern Slavic languages, means "to turn", likewise vrh (pronounced "ver-h") is a summit.
So is it right to think (based on my 2 years of Italian I did at school).
con-vert - turn with
per-vert - turn for
sub-vert - turn under/below
No rational explanation for vertex - any ideas?
Interesting....have you noticed any odd connections??
Frances,
En <convert> from Fr <convertir> from Low Latin <convertire> from La <convertere> = transform, turn about.
En <pervert> from Fr <pervertir> from LL <pervertire> from La <pervertere> = corrupt, ruin, turn round, overturn.
En <subvert> from Fr <subvertir> from LL <subvertire> from La <subvertere> = turn.
La verb <vertere> = turn, from La noun <vertex, verticis> = highest point, zenith, whirl, vortex.
En <vertical> from Fr adj <vertical> from LL <verticalis>, which was forged after inflected La <vertex, verticis>.
Same with En <vertiginous> from Fr <vertigineux> from La adj <vertiginosus> from La noun <vertigo, vertiginis>.
La <vortex, vorticis> is a variant of La <vertex, verticis>.
Conjectured Proto-Indo-European etymon is >WERT< = turn. Hence La <vertere> or <versare> (the latter leading to Fr <verser> = overturn or pour), Sanskrit <vartate> = (he) rolls, Lithuanian <verciu> = turn, Ge <werden> = become etc.
En <versed> meaning 'familiar' or 'skillful' is - indirectly - linked to En <convert>, <pervert> and <convert>.
The 3 latter ones derive from French <ir>-ending verbs (radical : >vert<)whereas the former derives from a French <er>-ending verb (radical : >vers<).
En adj <versed> from Fr adj pp <versé> from Fr verb <verser> = pour, overturn from Latin <versare> = turn, revolve, busy oneself.
'Aquarius' (water-pourer) is <verseau> in French.
All very interesting. What I'd like to know is, does any of this relate to the color green? "Vert" in French, "verde" in Spanish and Italian. Same root or meaningless coincidence?
Tom K.,
I think Fr <vert> = 'green' derives from LL <viridiare> = 'become green', from La <viridis> = 'green'.
Fr verb <verdoyer> = 'become green' gave present partciple <verdoyant> = 'becoming green', hence En adj <verdant> = 'green'.
Well actually En adj <verdant> may have derived from Middle Fr present participle <virdeant>, equivalent to Modern Fr present participle <verdoyant>.
En adj <verdant> follow the same principle as En adj <dormant>, deriving from (Old & Modern) French present participle <dormant> = 'sleeping' after the verb <dormir> = 'sleep'.
Fr <dormir> is an <ir>-ending verb, such as Fr <convertir>, Fr <subvertir> and Fr <pervertir>. But its present praticiple is Fr <dormant> = 'sleeping' versus Fr <convertissant> = 'converting', Fr <subvertissant> = 'subverting' and Fr <pervertissant> = 'perverting'.
Fr <dormir> takes an <ant>-suffix to form present participle, but no <iss>-infix.
Thanks for info - a well deserved cut and paste for your posts...
Come to think of it, there is also the "slavic" word of prevrti which means to exhange or loosley to alter or turn around which matched your Latin definition.
Another interesting link in European languages!
I also thought of versus as well - meaning as you know to be against someone. I'm sure it is related to the "vert" root
My Russian teacher gave us an interesting exercise. We had a list of Russian prefixes, which we were to add to a common verb of our choice and look of the meanings of the verbs thus created. In some instances there was an obvious connection to the literal translation of the prefix plus the root word. Other connections were more obscure.
look of the meanings --> look up the meanings
Spot on Deborah!! That's what I meant by the above post - what I tried to do was to show the literal meaning of the words and they fit quite nicely with the way we define them in English. Out of curoiusity, what is "to turn" and other related in Russian?
Greg's added another dimension and showed the "vert" root is more prevalent than I thought and his explanations and all kind of related...
Hey Greg - interesting about the French Aquarius - Aquarians are defined as being erratic characters (me being one myself!!), wonder if its got something to do with the definition
Re: Latin viridis "green" --- Linguist C. Michael Driessen discusses this word in a recent article of his and says that a Finnish linguist P. Kallio relates the latter to Permian vish, zyryen vezhi and Finnish viha "green". However other linguists suggest a Proto-Indo-European uis-o-dheh "green place; pasture".
Serbo-Croatian:
vrtiti (se)=turn, rotate (imperfective)
zavrtiti=start turning/rotating (inchoative)
(Croatian/Bosnian/Western Serbian would have "vrtjeti", "zavrtjeti" too, I think)
I don't really know which one is standard in Serbian: "vrtiti" or "vrteti". I think people say both.
perfective forms:
vrnuti (se)=to come back
zavrnuti=screw (on), roll up (one's sleeves)
odvrnuti=unscrew
prevrnuti (se)=flip, overturn
izvrnuti=turn inside out
uvrnuti=twist, wring
navrnuti= I think this should mean "screw on". I never use it.
svrnuti (modern "svratiti")=drop by
podvrnuti=roll up (one's sleeves)
Frances,
Aquarius are definitely nice people. And pretty curious too...
it Bulgarian it's v...rtia
Well, let's not forget that nearly all European languages belong to the family of the Indo-European languages.
Well, except for a bunch of Uralic languages (Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, the Sámi languages, some other lesser-known Baltic-Finnic languages, and so on), Basque (language isolate), Maltese (essentially a heavily Italian-influenced offshoot of Arabic), and a whole lot of other languages spoken in what's generally considered "european" Russia.