reversion

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See also: reversión and réversion

English

Etymology

Borrowed into late Middle English from Old French reversion (modern réversion), from Latin reversio, from revertō. By surface analysis, revert +‎ -sion.

Pronunciation

Noun

reversion (countable and uncountable, plural reversions)

  1. The action of reverting something.
    Synonym: reversal
  2. The action of returning to a former condition or practice.
    Synonym: regression
    • 1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 13:46 from the start, in Richard Nixon on "Inside Washington"‎, Richard Nixon Foundation, retrieved 25 May 2020:
      Well Russia at the present time is at a crossroads. It is often said that the Cold War is over and that the West has won it. That's only half true. Because what has happened is that the communists have been defeated, but the ideas of freedom now are on trial. If they don't work, there will be a reversion to, not communism which has failed, but what I call a new despotism which would pose a mortal danger to the rest of the world because it would be infected with the virus of Russian imperialism which of course has been a characteristic of Russian foreign policy for centuries.
  3. The fact of being turned the reverse way.
  4. The action of turning something the reverse way.
  5. (property law) The return of an estate to the donor or grantor after expiry of the grant.
    • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, III.ii:
      Why nothing capital of my master's wardrobe has drop'd lately—but I could give you a mortgage on some of his winter Cloaths with equity of redemption before November or—you shall have the reversion—of the French velvet, or a post obit on the Blue and Silver—
    • 1822, Lord Byron, The Vision of Judgement, stanza 6:
      Each day too slew it’s thousands six or seven,
      Till at the crowning carnage—Waterloo—
      They threw their pens down in divine disgust,
      The page was so besmeared with blood and dust. […]
      (Here, Sathan’s sole good work deserves insertion—
      ’Tis, that he has both Generals in reversion).
    • 1975, Harold C. Hinton, “Japan: Power and Problems”, in Three and A Half Powers: The New Balance in Asia‎, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 223:
      By the spring of 1972, however, Peking’s general anti-Japanese offensive was fading away in any case, and in mid-May the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese jurisdiction brought the Self-Defense Forces into the vicinity of the Tiao Yü T’ai (or Senkaku). Peking accordingly dropped the issue as suddenly as it had taken it up.
  6. (property law) An estate which has been returned in this manner.
  7. (property law) The right of succeeding to an estate, or to another possession.
  8. The right of succeeding to an office after the death or retirement of the holder.
  9. (genetics) The return of a genetic characteristic after a period of suppression.
    Synonym: backmutation
  10. A sum payable on a person's death.
  11. (Islam, usually proscribed) The act of conversion to Islam, due to the belief that all people are born Muslim.

Usage notes

The basic sense is reverting (as nominalization of revert), but also used as reversing (from reanalysis as reverse + -sion), for which the more precise term is reversal. Compare “mean reversion” with “reversal of fortune”. The similar regression has connotations of moving back in time.

In the Islamic sense, reversion and revert, although popular colloquially, are objected to as illogical and inaccurate by many Muslims and some of Islam's authority figures on linguistic and theological grounds.

Derived terms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Peña, Ricardo (2019 May 15) “8 Reasons to Stop Using the Word 'Revert'”, in The Mecca Center‎
  2. ^ “Converts, Reverts, or New Muslims?”, in New Beginnings‎, 2022 January 13

Further reading

Anagrams

Old French

Etymology

Latin reversiō.

Noun

reversion oblique singular, f (oblique plural reversions, nominative singular reversion, nominative plural reversions)

  1. return; act of going back
  2. return; act of giving back

Descendants

  • → English: reversion
  • French: réversion
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