Where does “perversity” come from?
Perversity comes from French perversité, from Latin perversitas meaning the quality of being perverted, derived from the Latin suffix -itas, which is rooted in Proto-Indo-European -it-.
perversity (English): The quality of being perverse; A perverse act
Definitions
- The quality of being perverse; A perverse act
Ancestry of “perversity”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | perverse | Turned aside; hence, specifically, turned away... |
| 2 | Old French | pervers | — |
| 3 | Latin | perversum | nominative neuter singular of perversus;... |
| 4 | Latin | pervertere | third-person plural perfect active indicative of... |
| 5 | Latin | vertere | inflection of vertō: ## third-person plural... |
| 6 | Latin | verto | I turn, revolve; I turn around; I reverse |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | wertō | to turn |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | wert- | to turn, to rotate |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | wer- | to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel |