reversin.

Etymology: In sense 1 < French reversi (1611 in Cotgrave, who defines it as ‘a kind of Trumpe (played backward, and full of sport) which the Duke of Savoy brought some ten yeares agoe into France’; 1609 as reversis reversis n.; 1601 as †reversin ), probably < either Italian †rovescina (a1584; < rovescio reverse, wrong side (see reverse n.) + -ina -ine suffix⁴) or rovescino (early 17th cent.; now denoting a negative form of Tressette, a similar card game; < rovescio (see reverse n.) + -ino -ine suffix⁴), with alteration after French revers reverse n.; compare also (with change of gender) Italian rovescino (1788 or earlier). The game is so called because its winner is the player taking the fewest tricks, a rule which is the ‘reverse’ of the usual one in the parent game, Tressette. Compare earlier reversis n. In sense 2 apparently intended to echo sense 1, although it could have been an independent formation by the game's apparent inventor, Lewis Waterman (to whom the game was patented in 1888) < reverse v.¹ + -i, arbitrary ending.The Italian name of the game was apparently also borrowed into Spanish (revesino , 1733 or earlier) and Portuguese (†reversino , 1746 or earlier). Although Spanish revesino has sometimes been suggested as the etymon of French reversi on the strength of several characteristics of the card game (e.g. the absence of tens in the pack used for the game, the direction of play from left to right, and the use of several Spanish loanwords in the terminology of the game), the lack of evidence both for currency of the game and for its name in 16th-cent. Spain supports an Italian origin. The form reversé , which is unparalleled in French, probably shows alteration after French nouns in -é -ate suffix¹.