Reversing

How to spell reversing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reversing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reversing mean?

1. verbMoving backwards, or turning something to the opposite direction, position, or decision.

Reversing in a sentence

• Reversing the van into the loading bay took three careful attempts.

• The board is reversing its earlier decision on staff bonuses.

Where does reversing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'reverse', which English took from Old French 'reverser', itself descended from the Latin 'reversare', a form built on 'revertere' meaning 'to turn back' or 'to turn around'. That Latin verb combines the prefix 're-' meaning 'back' with 'vertere' meaning 'to turn', so the literal sense is simply 'to turn back the other way'. The word entered English in the 1300s, first carrying ideas of overturning or undoing, and only much later picked up the everyday driving sense of moving a vehicle backwards. The same 'vertere' root turns up in a whole family of relatives such as 'convert', 'divert' and 'version', all of which involve some kind of turning. Knowing that 'vers' is the turning root helps fix the single 's' in the spelling, since the ending is '-versing' and not '-versting' or anything doubled.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• vers (turn, from Latin vertere)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)