controvert

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin contrōvertere, from Latin contrō- (“against”) + vertere (“to turn”).

Verb

controvert (third-person singular simple present controverts, present participle controverting, simple past and past participle controverted)

1. (transitive) To dispute, to argue about (something). [from 16th c.]
2. (transitive) To argue against (something or someone); to contradict, to deny. [from 16th c.]
   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, →OCLC:

     [T]hat women from their education and the present state of civilized life, are in the same condition, cannot, I think, be controverted.

3. (intransitive) To be involved or engaged in controversy; to argue. [from 17th c.]

Related terms

• controversial
• controversialist
• controversy
• controverter
• controvertible
• incontrovertible

Translations

dispute or argue using reason

• Bulgarian: споря (bg) (sporja), оспорвам (bg) (osporvam)
• Romanian: contrazice (ro), tăgădui (ro), nega (ro)

be involved or engaged in controversy

• Russian: спорить (ru) (sporitʹ)

Further reading

• “controvert”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “controvert”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.