English
invert
Invert comes from Middle French invertir, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, to rotate, spin’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wert-‘to turn, to rotate, spin’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600invertir
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1602invert
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wert-‘to turn, to rotate, spin’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600invertir
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1602invert
Earliest quotation: c. 1602, William Shakespeare: “That doth inuert th’atteſt of eyes and eares, /…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, to rotate, spin’
word, university, worth, weird, version, ridiculous, divorce, conversation, universe, diversity, versus, diverse, verse, vertical, advertisement, ridicule, versatile, vortex, adversity, diversification, convertible, advert, divert, revert, derision, pervert, vertigo, vertex, vertebrate, avert, subvert, wurst, verso, introvert, vertebra, deride, derisive, perversity, evert, vertiginous, 67 more
Today it means
verb To turn (something) upside down or inside out; to place in a contrary order or direction; to make (something) the opposite of it.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *wert- / invert