averta

Latin

Alternative forms

• aberta

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ορτή (aortḗ, “knapsack”). Attested from ca. 4th century CE.

Either influenced by āvertō (“to turn something away”) or borrowed early enough (despite the late attestation), and through a Greek dialect preserving /w/, to participate in the early Latin sound change /wo/> /we/.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /aˈu̯er.ta/, [äˈu̯ɛrt̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈver.ta/, [äˈvɛrt̪ä]

Noun

averta f (genitive avertae); first declension

1. portmanteau, saddlebag(s)

   Synonyms: pēra, mantica, saccus

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	averta	avertae
genitive	avertae	avertārum
dative	avertae	avertīs
accusative	avertam	avertās
ablative	avertā	avertīs
vocative	averta	avertae

Derived terms

• avertārius

Descendants

• → Ancient Greek: ἀβέρτα (abérta)
• ⇒ Sardinian: bertula
• Sicilian: vèrtula (from *averta -ula)

References

• “averta” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present

Further reading

• “averta”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• averta in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• averta in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.