Etymology
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reversion (n.)

late 14c., reversioun, a legal word used in reference to the return of an estate to the heirs of a grantor on the expiration of the grant, from Old French reversion and directly from Latin reversionem (nominative reversio) "act of turning back," noun of action from past-participle stem of revertere (see revert). From early 15c. as "a return to a place."

reversion has various senses, chiefly legal or biological .... It suffices to say that they all correspond to the verb revert, & not to the verb reverse, whose noun is reversal. [Fowler]

Entries linking to reversion

revert (v.)

c. 1300, reverten, "to come to oneself again, regain consciousness, recover from illness" (senses now obsolete), from Anglo-French reverter, Old French revertir "return, change back," from Vulgar Latin *revertire, variant of Latin revertere "turn back, turn about; come back, return," from re- "back" (see re-) + vertere "to turn" (from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend").

Meaning "return to a former state or position" is from mid-15c. Of property, "revert to a grantor or his successor," from mid-15c.; in reference to a return to a former habit, practice, custom, etc., from 1610s. In biology, "go back to an earlier, primitive, or ancestral type," 1859. Related: Reverted; reverting.

updated on August 31, 2022

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Dictionary entries near reversion

reverential

reverie

reversal

reverse

reversible

reversion

revert

revest

revetment

revictual

review

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