inverseadj.n.
/ˈɪnvəːs/, /ɪnˈvəːs/, U.S. /ˈɪnˌvərs/, /ᵻnˈvərs/ A. adj.
1. That is or has been turned upside down; turned over; = inverted adj. 9. Now somewhat rare.
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the world > space > relative position > inversion > [adjective]
enversed?1440
inverse?1440
turned1513
overturned1561
inversed1592
inverted1598
topsy-turvy1618
downside up1683
headlong1713
upturned1816
Antipodean1853
upside down1866
tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) iv. l. 134 The tasul seed ynuerse [L. inuersa] is not to sette, Lest croked, feynt, & hard of hit ascende.
1592 R. Dallington tr. F. Colonna Hypnerotomachia f. 60v The vessell was..closed vp at the orifice with an inuerse foliature.
1661 R. Lovell Πανζωορυκτολογια, sive Panzoologicomineralogia 345 Also things seeme inverse, by reason of the mutation of the site of the crystalline humour.
1700 Moxon's Mech. Exercises: Bricklayers-wks. 19 Make from these Piers inverse Arches.
1709 G. Berkeley Ess. New Theory of Vision §100. 115 Whether Objects were Erect or Inverse.
1824 T. Hood Two Swans in New Monthly Mag. 10 145 A tower builded on a lake, Mock'd by its inverse shadow.
1869 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 138 Body short and rounded or concave below, or varying to an inverse bell shape.
1949 H. Plutzik Aspects of Proteus 22 What wanders under the meadow—An inverse horrible shadow? As our feet pace ground..There are upside-down people Pacing below us there.
2017 @Johnny_Strategy 22 Dec. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) The stunning new Mt. Fuji Heritage Center is shaped like an inverse cone with a pond around it that reflects the form of 🗻.
2. Reversed or transposed; turned in an opposite direction; performed or proceeding in a reversed order, manner, or sequence; having the opposite or contrary nature or effect; opposite, contrary.
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the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > [adjective] > reversing natural order > reversed (of order)
preposterous1533
inverse1568
inversed1573
inverted1577
retrograde1664
cockeye1899
1568 H. Billingsley tr. P. M. Vermigli Most Learned Comm. Epist. Romanes xii. f. 421 This commonly commeth to passe in thinges which are nigh by nature, that by an inuerse order they mutually inferre the one the other. For so of rayne are engendred cloudes, and agayne of cloudes is brought forth rayne.
a1611 T. Newhouse Certaine Serm. (1614) 49 In the latter end of the verse there is an inuerse repetition of the former branch, with an amplification from the cause.
a1653 H. Binning Sinners Sanctuary (1670) xxi. 167 Its a direct motion towards Christ, its an inverse and backward motion towards our selves.
1715 in W. Whiston Astron. Lect. viii. 97 [The waning moon] puts on the same Shapes again, but in an inverse Order.
1784 S. Pegge Curialia: Pt. 2 (1791) 95 An intention of an inverse nature was entertained by Mr. Burke.
1834 M. Somerville On Connexion Physical Sci. (1849) viii. 70 The inverse problem had now to be solved.
1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) II. xxii. 298 The first who gave the analysis of the inverse truth, without supposing the direct one to be already known.
1858 A. H. Clough Amours de Voyage in Atlantic Monthly May 784 What shall I do?..Go on..Seeking, an inverse Saul, a kingdom, to find only asses?
1868 W. Lockyer & J. N. Lockyer tr. A. Guillemin Heavens (ed. 3) 65 The same appearances are observed, but in an inverse order.
1905 Nature 7 Dec. 136/2 The meteorological conditions which obtain during the wet season and the dry season are quite inverse of each other.
1982 A. C. Moulyn Meaning of Suffering viii. 200 The stream of information about the patient's life ought to flow from patient to therapist and not in the inverse direction.
2015 Road & Track Feb. 21/1 Is that not simply the inverse, bizarro version of what has gotten you to wherever you are now?
3. Mathematics.
a. [after post-classical Latin inversa ratio (1588 in a translation of Euclid, or earlier)] . In inverse proportion, inverse ratio. Designating a ratio or proportion in which the antecedent and consequent of another are interchanged. Also: designating a ratio or proportion in which one quantity increases (or decreases) in proportion to a decrease (or increase) in the other. in inverse proportion: so that one quantity increases in proportion to a decrease in the other.
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the world > relative properties > number > ratio or proportion > [noun] > inverse
inverse proportion1660
inverse ratio1660
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [adjective] > describing relationships between quantities > inverse
reciprocal1570
reverse1594
inverse proportion1660
inverted1678
conjugate1680
conjugated1798
the world > relative properties > number > ratio or proportion > [noun] > equal or constant > terms reversed
inverse1656
inverse ratio1660
1660 tr. I. Barrow Euclide's Elements v. 93 Inverse ratio [L. inuersa ratio] is when the consequent is taken as the antecedent, and so compared to the antecedent as the consequent.
1784 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 74 46 Their densities,..being in the inverse duplicate ratio of their semi-diameters, must be in the inverse sextuplicate ratio of the distance of the revolving body.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 139 The operation of opinion being in the inverse ratio to the number of those who abuse power. View more context for this quotation
1793 T. Beddoes Observ. Nature Demonstrative Evid. 19 A balance of which one arm should be ten inches, and the other one inch long, and each arm should be loaded in an inverse proportion to its length.
1814 J. Playfair Outl. Nat. Philos. II. ii. v. 295 The attraction of a spheroid, in the plane of its equator, does not decrease exactly in the inverse ratio of the square of the distance.
1865 F. Oakeley Hist. Notes 51 The ratio of its extent appeared to be inverse with the degree in which it was sought.
1904 Lancet 4 June 1613/1 He had examined eosin,..acridin, and fluorescin, and found that their photodynamic action was in inverse ratio to their degree of fluorescence.
2009 P. Weigall Fishing Season 140 The idle chatter increased in inverse proportion to the fading fishing opportunities.
b. Designating an equation or other mathematical expression derived from another by rearrangement or substitution of terms.
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1805 C. Dubost Commerc. Arithm. 176 State an inverse equation, of which the result must be equal to the first term of the dividend of the former equation.
1926 Amer. Math. Monthly 33 509 This result is more easily obtained from the inverse equation of (7).
2013 A. Kaseberg et al. Intermediate Algebra (ed. 5) vi. 454 The inverse equation is a function.
c. Originally: designating a function g whose relationship to another function f is such that the domain and image of g are respectively the same as the image and domain of f, and g (y) = x whenever f(x) = y (and vice versa) for all values of x and y. In later use also more generally: designating an element of an algebraic structure whose relationship with another element is such that combining the two with a particular operation belonging to the structure produces the identity element associated with that operation.Recorded earliest in inverse function n. at Compounds.
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1813 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 103 10 It frequently happens that a peculiar characteristic symbol is appropriated to the inverse function.
1935 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 57 276 This postulate system is often met in a slightly different form, with VI and VII replaced by stronger statements which postulate identity and inverse elements, not merely right-hand identity and inverse elements.
1951 W. W. Elliott & E. R. C. Miles College Math. (ed. 2) ii. 20 The functions in (2) and (3) are said to be inverse to each other.
2006 P. J. Nahin Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula i. 18 Inverse matrices are, in general, not trivial to calculate, but the rotation matrix is an exception to that.
d. Designating a fraction having one as its numerator and a given power or root of a specified quantity as its denominator, as inverse square, inverse cube, etc.
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1825 Philos. Mag. 66 99 The diminution follows more nearly the ratio of the inverse square of the distance.
1874 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 4th Ser. 48 442 The law of the magnetic action of any element of the shell is changed from the inverse square to the inverse cube.
1974 New Scientist 16 Mar. 591/2 The computing speed of the machine will increase as the inverse square root of the circuit density.
2013 Ann. Physics 335 23 These operators have coefficients of inverse powers of mass.
e. Geometry. Designating a point, line, curve, etc., related to another by geometric inversion (inversion n. 23), as inverse point, inverse line, inverse curve, etc.
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the world > relative properties > number > geometry > [noun] > geometrical relation > element involved in
conjugate1715
inverse curve1843
inverse1857
homoeomorph1926
1843 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 23 343 The area of the inverse ellipse is an arithmetic mean between the areas of the circles described on its axes.
1873 G. Salmon Treat. Higher Plane Curves (ed. 2) vi. 247 The six inverse lines also touch a conic.
1925 H. F. Baker Princ. Geom. (2010) IV. i. 14 These are the formulae of inversion in the plane ω, in which (ξ, η, ζ) are the coordinates of a point, and (ξ', η', ζ') those of the inverse point.
1961 Math. Gaz. 45 133 From this it is concluded that the inverse curve is a circle.
2006 J. G. Ratcliffe Found. Hyperbolic Manifolds (ed. 2) iv. 115 We have that ɸ(x) and ɸ(y) are inverse points with respect to ɸ(Σ).
f. inverse image n. Mathematics a subset of the domain of a function containing every element mapped to a given subset of the range; = preimage n.The inverse image of a set E under a function f is typically denoted f−1[E].
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the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [noun] > set or values in
image1888
inverse image1932
preimage1942
spectrum1948
1932 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 34 397 A necessary condition that a transformation be continuous is that for each point a and its transform b, the inverse image of every neighborhood of b is a neighborhood of a.
1968 E. T. Copson Metric Spaces vii. 86 If the inverse image of each point of E2 is either empty or consists of a single point of E1, the mapping f:E1 → E2 is said to be an injection or a one-to-one mapping.
2014 A. McCluskey & B. McMaster Undergraduate Topol. iii. 29 A mapping..from a topological space to a topological space is called continuous if..the inverse image of every open set is open.
4. Crystallography. In certain systems of classification: designating a polyhedral crystal form in which the crystallographic axes intersect edges of the polyhedron (as opposed to vertices). Contrasted with direct. Now rare.
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the world > matter > chemistry > crystallography (general) > crystal (general) > crystals (other miscellaneous) > [adjective] > index (structures having unequal index)
inverse1814
direct1878
1814 Synopsis Contents Brit. Mus. (ed. 7) 31 Crystallized carbonate of lime..; the various secondary rhombohedrons..: among these the most common, but not the least striking, is the inverse rhombohedron, so called from being as it were an inversion of the primitive.
1855 W. A. Miller Elem. Chem. I. 104 The octahedron is said to be direct, when the axes end in the angles,—inverse, when they end in the edges.
1903 Mineral. Mag. 13 293 The faces of the direct forms are bright, fairly free from striae, and slightly rounded; those of the inverse forms are small and much striated.
1922 A. E. H. Tutton Crystallogr. (ed. 2) I. 332 The first or primary rhombohedron {100} is generally spoken of as the ‘direct’ or positive one, and the secondary rhombohedron {122} as the ‘inverse’ or negative one.
1978 Overseas Geol. & Mineral Resources No. 52 27/2 It commonly appears as crystals tabular on {0001} with about equal development of direct and inverse rhombohedra.
5. Crystallography. Designating a spinel, AB2O4, or its structure, in which half the B (trivalent) cations are in tetrahedral holes in the array of oxide anions, and the A (divalent) cations, together with the other half of the B cations, are in octahedral holes. Cf. spinel n. 2.The inverse structure is in contrast to the normal one, in which the A cations are in tetrahedral holes and the B cations are in octahedral holes.
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the world > matter > chemistry > crystallography (general) > crystal (general) > crystal irregularities > [adjective] > inverse spinel structure
inverse1949
1947 E. J. W. Verwey & E. L. Heilmann in Jrnl. Chem. Physics 15 175/2 For the sake of convenience, the first arrangement will be indicated as characteristic for ‘normal spinels’, the Barth and Posnjak arrangement as that of ‘inversed spinels’.]
1949 Electr. Engin. (U.S.) Apr. 336/2 Normal spinel ferrites are not ferromagnetic while inverse spinel ferrites are ferromagnetic.
1970 R. G. Burns Mineral. Applic. Crystal Field Theory vi. 112 Ni2+ and Cu2+ have a strong tendency to form inverse spinels.
2005 R. E. Newnham Properties of Materials xvi. 168 In the inverse spinel magnetic structure of magnetite, tetrahedral Fe3+ spins are directed antiparallel to octahedral Fe3+ and Fe2+ spins.
B. n.
1. The opposite or contrary of something; esp. a situation, process, state of affairs, etc., which is the reverse of that which has been previously stated or described; (also in weakened sense); that which may be inferred by considering a given statement from an opposing or differing perspective.
a. With of, to, or possessive.
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the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > [noun] > reversal of natural or proper order
somersault1530
inversion1546
hysteron proteron1584
preposterousness1607
renversement1610
reversala1626
inverse1630
reversement1720
topsy-turvying1807
topsy-turvification1840
upending1968
1630 R. Delamain Grammelogia 13 More uses upon Division... If the Rent were given and the Purchase required, it is the inverse of this, and is proper to Multiplication.
1665 W. Johnson Αγυρτο-Μαστιξ 100 He will appear to be neither a Divine, nor a Physitian, the inverse of that Title [sc. The Poor Mans Physitian], which he hath falsly put upon his Book, justly belonging to himself; The Mans a Poor Physitian.
1765 J. Elphinston Princ. Eng. Lang. Digested II. viii. 198 The solemn, as the inverse to the familiar stile.
1794 G. Adams Lect. Nat. & Exper. Philos. IV. lii. 532 Rain, which is the inverse of evaporation.
1823 H. J. Brooke Familiar Introd. Crystallogr. 74 Proceeding in an order the inverse of that by which the modified crystal has been formed.
1891 W. E. Gladstone Speech at Newcastle 2 Oct. in National Liberal Federation: Proc. 14th Ann. Meeting The foreign policy of the present Administration has been well-nigh the inverse and the reverse to that of the Administration of Lord Beaconsfield.
1978 Jrnl. South Asian Lit. 13 15 This highly developed homonymy is the inverse to an equally richly developed synonymy.
1993 Spy (N.Y.) Mar. 61/1 The sixties gave birth to the phenomenon now known as Selling Out, and hence to Selling Out's inverse, Refusenikism.
2011 J. P. Montaño Roots of Eng. Colonialism in Ireland Introd. 1 Here we see the inverse of cultivation and civility, a disordered, unmanured, and untilled landscape.
b. Without construction.
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the world > relative properties > relationship > contrariety or contrast > [noun] > the opposite of something
contraryc1386
reversec1405
the contraverse1480
nothing less?1520
contrariety1532
negative1532
oppositive1561
different1571
diameter1579
contrariwise1588
opposition1594
counterpoint1599
oppositea1616
other thing1628
antipodes1641
inverse1645
contra1648
contrast1754
converse1786
contrariant1848
antipole1856
obverse1862
antithetic1863
contradictory1874
antipathy-
1645 J. Pell Let. 18 Feb. in J. Pell & his Corr. with C. Cavendish (2005) 407 Whether the inquisition must proceede directly, or have somewhat in it of the inverse.
1757 J. Rutty Methodical Synopsis Min. Waters Pref. p. x Altho' all waters that curdle milk, do perhaps also curdle soap, yet the inverse is not true.
1827 Standard 8 June In the time of Edward III..that exportation [sc. of wool trade]..was prohibited. The direct inverse had now taken place; the import of wool was now from abroad.
1895 Rep. Chief Inspector Factories & Workshops 1894 190 In the tailoring trade female labour predominates while the inverse is the case in the boot trade.
1943 E. F. Adolf Physiol. Regulations xvii. 404 It is easy enough to arrange for the inverse to happen by depleting water; then administering a pyretic drug to develop a positive heat load.
1984 Daily Gaz. (Xenia, Ohio) 10 Feb. 4/6 Before World War II, women were a minority..among Soviet professionals. Now the situation is the inverse.
2012 M. Perry Invitation to Supernatural Life iv. 97 If he can trick you into believing, ‘Well, of course miracles happen there—it's Africa,’ he will soon have you believing the inverse: that miracles do not happen in the West.
2. Mathematics.
a. A ratio or proportion in which the antecedents and consequents of a given ratio or proportion are interchanged. Cf. sense A. 3a.
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the world > relative properties > number > ratio or proportion > [noun] > equal or constant > terms reversed
inverse1656
inverse ratio1660
1656 tr. T. Hobbes Elements Philos. ii. xiii. 120 The propotion of C to D is the Inverse of the proportion of A to B.
1695 W. Alingham Geom. Epitomiz'd 101 By the other two, the inverses of both are proved, for as a: A::b:B, also as b:a::B:A.
1847 Proc. Royal Irish Acad. 1845–7 3 5 It seems natural and almost necessary..that (for directions, as for lengths) the inverses of equal ratios are equal.
1953 Jrnl. Consulting Psychol. 17 297/2 A weighting system is employed for this purpose which attributes to each decision the inverse of the proportion of clinicians recommending that treatment for the average patient.
2006 Cruising World Oct. 145/1 The pressure of the water delivered by the small-diameter piston will be in proportion to the inverse of the ratio of the piston diameters.
b. Originally: = inverse function n. at Compounds. In later use also more generally: an element of an algebraic structure whose relationship with another element is such that combining the two with a particular operation in the structure produces the identity element associated with that operation. Cf. sense A. 3c.
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the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [noun] > relationship between quantities > other
finite difference1807
inverse1837
reciprocator1874
power law1919
recursive relation1934
1837 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 127 188 If all the component operations be alike, we have then but to change the sign of the index to obtain the inverse.
1908 H. Hilton Introd. Theory Groups Finite Order i. 1 An element α always exists such that αa = e, whatever element a may be. We call α the inverse of a.
2006 M. F. Barnsley Superfractals iii. 288 A group of transformations is a special type of semigroup—every transformation possesses an inverse that is also in the group.
2011 R. Kautz Chaos x. 154 The logarithm is the inverse of the exponential, and undoes whatever the exponential does.
c. Geometry. A point, line, curve, etc., that is related to another by geometric inversion (inversion n. 23). Cf. sense A. 3e.
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the world > relative properties > number > geometry > [noun] > geometrical relation > element involved in
conjugate1715
inverse curve1843
inverse1857
homoeomorph1926
1857 Q. Jrnl. Pure & Appl. Math. 1 32 The distance between two points will be to the distance between their inverses; as to the product of the lines joining those points to the origin is to k2.
1887 R. A. Roberts Integral Calculus i. 315 The central inverse of a conic.
1966 J. H. Cadwell Topics in Recreational Math. v. 42 Hence the locus..is a circle centre C1. We note that C1 is not the inverse of C.
2017 Internat. Jrnl. Math. Educ. Sci. & Technol. 133 The angle at which two surfaces intersect is equal to that made by their inverses.
3. Gambling. In the game rouge et noir (rouge et noir n.): the chance that the colour of the row of cards which wins the coup will not match that of the first card turned up by the dealer; a bet on this chance. Also: the section of the table in which bets on this chance are placed.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > games of chance > games of chance played with cards > [noun] > Rouge et Noir > section of table
inverse1823
1823 London Lit. Gaz. 6 Sept. 566/2 We fling our last stake on Rouge et Noir, or Trent-un.., and being Couleur, need not care for the Inverse.
1850 H. G. Bohn et al. Hand-bk. Games 343 The punters place on the Rouge, the Noir, the Couleur, or the Inverse, the sum they wish to risk.
1909 ‘L. Hoffmann’ Hoyle's Games Modernized 465 The other chance, the Couleur and Inverse, is decided by the colour of the first card turned up. If the colour of this card corresponds with the colour of the winning row, then Couleur wins; if it is of the opposite colour, then Inverse wins.
1967 R. A. Epstein Theory Gambling & Statist. Logic vi. 212 If Rouge..wins and the first card is red..the Couleur wins, otherwise, Inverse wins. A player bettering on Couleur or Inverse also ties if the two totals are equal 32 through 40.
2010 S. N. Ethier Doctrine of Chances xx. 623 Four even-money bets are available, called red, black, color, and inverse.
4. Logic. A proposition obtained by the inversion (inversion n. 9) of another proposition.
ΚΠ
1884 J. N. Keynes Stud. & Exercises Formal Logic ii. v. 91 Original proposition, All S is P... Inverse, Some not-S is not P.
1897 T. de R. Hawley Infallible Logic xxvi. 430 Given a proposition with A for subject and B for predicate, we obtain by inversion a new proposition with not-A for subject. The original proposition is called the invertend and the inferred proposition the inverse.
1902 S. H. Mellone Introd. Text-bk. Logic iii. 90 It will be found that an inverse is obtainable only when the original proposition is universal.
1943 Philos. Rev. 52 61 In the case of the inverse of an E proposition the null class may seem much more evident.
1990 A. Sion Future Logic vii. 35 The source proposition is then called obvertend.., invertend, and so on, while the target proposition is called obverse.., inverse, as the case may be.
Compounds
inverse function n. [after French fonction inverse (1797 or earlier)] Mathematics a function g whose relationship to another function f is such that the domain and image of g are respectively the same as the image and domain of f, and g (y) = x whenever f(x) = y (and vice versa) for all values of x and y.The inverse function of a function f is usually denoted f−1 and has the property that f−1(f(x)) = x and f(f−1(y)) = y for every x in the domain of f and every y in the domain of f−1.
ΚΠ
1813 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 103 10 It frequently happens that a peculiar characteristic symbol is appropriated to the inverse function.
1918 Math. Teacher 10 151 This method is useful in deriving the graphs of inverse functions.
2008 J. Stewart Calculus (ed. 6) vii. 389 If f is a one-to-one continuous function defined on an interval, then its inverse function f−1 is also continuous.
inverse snobbery n. an attitude of exaggerated contempt or dislike for wealth, achievement, high social status, refined taste, typically combined with esteem for ‘ordinary people’, popular taste or culture, etc.; behaviour associated with such an attitude; = inverted snobbery n. at inverted adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1900 Contemp. Rev. July 155 To the sins of Government House it naturally applies itself with a kind of inverse snobbery, the small scurrility of the third-rate society paper.
1951 Evening Tel. (Rocky Mount, N. Carolina) 30 Oct. 15/2 Small town folk in moderate or lean financial circumstances [are] more apt to display inverse snobbery towards affluent newcomers.
1994 Guardian 7 Oct. 11/5 The inverse snobberies of British art-pop.
2012 V. Mayhew & R. Hosie Choose Right Word (e-book ed.) In a kind of inverse snobbery, some speakers tried to pass themselves off as more working class than in fact they were.
inverse spelling n. an unetymological spelling based on the spelling of a similar sounding word or phoneme, esp. one in which an unetymological element is inserted in a word on the basis of analogy with another word where the element in question is etymologically justified, but is no longer pronounced, e.g. the spelling of limb (Old English lim) with a b, by analogy with lamb (Old English lamb).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > spelling > [noun] > unetymological spelling, not phonetic
inverted spelling1891
inverse spelling1902
1902 C. C. Rice Phonol. Gallic Clerical Lat. (Ph.D. thesis, Harvard Univ.) 65 If he pronounced the group as ns, his inverse spelling concinsi[sc. for consinsi] is not absolutely phonetic.
1925 Amer. Speech 1 146/1 In the early part of the seventeenth century..we already find the levelling of the two sounds of w and wh. The word which is spelled wich and..the identity of the two sounds is confirmed by inverse spellings such as whearing apparel.
1956 N. E. Eliason Tarheel Talk v. 194 Occasionally inverse spellings occur, for example forks for folks,..and polk for pork.
2002 E. H. Antonsen Runes & Germanic Linguistics vi. 114 Inverse spellings..cannot be explained otherwise than as the result of confusion on the part of the writer concerning the manner in which a particular phoneme should be rendered in writing.
inverse video n. Computing (now somewhat rare) a display mode in which the default colours of (some) text characters and their background are reversed; (also) text displayed in this manner; = reverse video n. at reverse adj. and adv. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1978 Autotestcon Proc. (IEEE) 382/2 The current point for insertion is shown by a line of inverse video.
2000 Signal Processing 16 142/2 We do not assume any prior knowledge about frame resolution, text location, font styles, and text appearance modes such as normal and inverse video.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
inversev.
/ɪnˈvəːs/, U.S. /ᵻnˈvərs/ transitive. To invert (something) (in various senses of invert v.).With quot. 1864 cf. to cheer but not inebriate at cheer v.1 Phrases.
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the world > space > relative position > inversion > invert [verb (transitive)]
to-wendc893
whelvec1000
to turn down?c1335
to turn up?c1335
whelmc1340
overturna1382
to turn overa1400
wholve14..
inverse?a1425
reverse?a1425
overwhelvec1450
overvolvea1522
transverse1557
evert1566
topsy-turn1573
topsy-turve1603
invert1610
upturn1610
whave1611
topsy-turvy1626
whemmel1684
cant1850
upend1868
flip-flop1924
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > arrange in sequence or series [verb (transitive)] > reverse natural or proper order
misturna1350
inverse?a1425
invert1533
transvert1552
preposterate1566
retrograde1582
rencounter1689
transverse1738
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 128 (MED) Þe palpebre forsoþ is inuersed [?c1425 Paris is turnede yn; L. inuersatur] in compressing þe palpebrez with a brode probe or a round peny.
1578 J. Banister Hist. Man viii. f. 103v The watrishe [humour] is placed..betwene the Membran called Vuea (where it is made double and inuersed) and that which is called Cornea.
1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words Inuersare, to inuert, to inuerse.
1640 G. Watts tr. F. Bacon Of Advancem. Learning v. ii. 232 Now inverse the Barre, placeing the hot part upwards, and your hand upon the part which is downwards, and you shall not feele the heate so soone by many Pulses.
a1680 S. Butler Mercurius Menippeus (1682) 6 You would think the Church as well as Religion were invers'd, and the Anticks, which were used to be without, were removed into the Pulpit.
a1701 C. Sedley Happy Pair (1702) 6 From hence the baffl'd World has been inverst, Princes involv'd in War, and People Curst.
1799 J. G. Dalyell tr. L. Spallanzani Tracts Nature of Animals & Veg. 283 I sought for the results of the experiment inversed; that is, what will happen when we pass wheelers from the degree of heat at which they are animated, to different degrees of cold.
1849 C. Brontë Shirley I. vii. 165 Inversing the natural order of insect existence.
1864 H. E. P. Spofford Azarian i. 34 This tea, that is made of flowers, inverses Cowper,—inebriates, but not cheers, I fancy.
1904 Graphic Arts & Crafts Year Bk. 64 It is then necessary to restore the direction of gradation, by inversing the image, an operation which is effected without any difficulty.
1975 Yale French Stud. No. 52. 201 In his fantasmatic, Schreber inverses the phallocratic circuit in order to place himself in the region..of ‘receptivity’.
2014 Cape Times (Nexis) 14 Apr. (E1 ed.) (Life section) 7 The directors have inversed genders for a number of the roles, a choice which allows an alternative gaze at both the victims and perpetrators and provides an additional challenge for the cast.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.?1440
v.?a1425