Lat. convert- and convers-
A number of these cognates are useful or good friends, in the
sense that their meanings are quite similar. Take first the pair Eng. convert
~ Sp. convertir, derived from Lat. convĕrtĕre ‘to turn around, transform,
convert’ (con+vĕrt+ĕ+re),
derived from vĕrtĕre by
means of the prefix con‑ ‘with,
together’. The English verb convert
[kən.ˈvɜɹt] is a 13th century loanword from Old French, where it
was not a patrimonial word. Spanish convertir
is also a learned borrowing from written Latin, perhaps through French, also from
the 13th century.
English has a noun also written convert, but pronounced [ˈkɒn.vəɹt],
which means ‘someone who has been persuaded to change their beliefs and accept a
particular religion or opinion’ (DOCE). This noun, which appeared in English in
the 16th century, seems to be a back-formation of the verb to convert, i.e. the noun
was derived from the verb, in English itself (cf. Part I, §5.9).
As we saw in the preceding section, the equivalent noun in Spanish is converso/a,
a noun that is a loanword from the passive participle of Latin convĕrtĕre, namely conversus ‘turned around’ (con+vers+us; fem. conversa). (This passive participle was converted to a noun in
Latin, but only with the meaning ‘a turning or twisting around’.)
As we mentioned earlier, all the derived Spanish verbs on this
list are third conjugation ‑ir verbs,
unlike verter, which is a second conjugation
‑er verb. As we have seen before, Latin
third conjugation ‑ĕre verbs became either second
‑er or third ‑ir conjugation verbs in Spanish. Here we see how both options were realized
with this very same root. Also interesting is that even though these are learned
verbs, the stem vowel e, from the original
Latin short ĕ, behaves just like patrimonial vowels do in that it diphthongizes
to ie when stressed, as in yo convierto ‘I convert’. That is not the norm
with learned verbs that are borrowed from written Latin and the reason must have
had something to do with the influence (analogy) of verter, which is a patrimonial verb.
From the very same stem convers‑
(con+vers‑), Latin created other words,
such as the noun conversiōnem (nom. conversiō), for ‘the act of converting’,
formed with the suffix ‑iōn‑.
This noun has given us the cognates Eng. conversion [kən.ˈvɜɹ.ʃən] and Sp. conversión
[kom.beɾ.ˈsi̯on].
From the same stem convers‑,
Latin derived the verb conversāre, a frequentative
version of convĕrtĕre,
which came to have the meanings ‘to turn around or over’, ‘to ponder’, and ‘to consort
or associate with’. The passive version of this frequentative verb was conversārī, which had various meanings
such as ‘to occupy oneself’, ‘to keep company (with)’, and ‘to live with’. This
verb was borrowed by English and Spanish, giving us the verbs Eng. converse
[kən.ˈvɜɹs] and Sp. conversar [kom.beɾ.ˈsaɾ].
Both cognates have the same meaning, namely ‘engage in conversation’ (COED), and
they both appeared around the same time, namely 16th century, perhaps under French
influence, since French borrowed the verb converser
from Latin in the 11th century with the meaning ‘to live somewhere’, which
changed in the 12th century to ‘to live with someone’, and the
meaning ‘engage in conversation’ is not attested until the late 17th century.
The Latin noun derived from this Latin verb was conversātĭo, which meant ‘frequent use’,
‘frequent abode in a place’, and ‘intercourse, conversation’. Eng. conversation ~ Sp. conversación have been borrowed with the latter of these meanings.
Note that English also has an noun converse
that means ‘a situation, fact, or statement that is the opposite of another’
(COED), which can also be an adjective meaning ‘opposite’, as in the converse
situation. This adjective does not have
a Spanish cognate, and it translates as opuesto/a
or contrario. The noun converse, which is always preceded by
the definite article the, translates
as lo opuesto, lo contrario.
From the stem convert‑
we have the cognate adjectives Eng. convertible and Sp. convertible,
both of which mean ‘that can be converted’. Both ultimately from Latin convĕrtĭbilis ‘changeable’
(con+vĕrt+ĭ+bĭl+is),
formed with the adjectival suffix ‑bĭl‑
(cf. Eng. ‑able/ible). It is likely that
French borrowed this adjective first and then passed it on to Spanish and English.
English convertible [kən.ˈvɜɹ.ɾə.bəl] has been around since the 14th century and it can be used
as a noun since the 17th century, especially since the early 20th century for an
automobile with a detachable top, short for convertible
automobile (Sp. descapotable).[1]
Other English examples of uses of this adjective are convertible sofa (it can be
turned into a bed, cf. Sp. sofá cama),
convertible currency (it can be converted to other currencies, cf. Sp. moneda convertible), convertible collar (it can be used with the neck button fastened or unfastened).
There are a few other words derived from the stems the convert‑ and convers‑. One of them is Eng. converter (convert+er), also spelled convertor (convert+or), literally meaning ‘thing that converts’. This word was
formed in English out of the verb convert
and the agentive suffix ‑er or ‑or. It has several different uses, one of
them, for example, is ‘electronic device that converts one frequency of a radio
signal to another’ (AHD). It typically translates into Spanish as convertidor
(con+vert+i+dor), derived from the verb
convertir and the Spanish agentive suffix ‑dor,
e.g. convertidor de corriente eléctrica ‘electric current converter’ or
convertidor de señales de televisión
‘TV signal converter’. Another option in Spanish is conversor, as in analogue-to-digital converter, which in Spanish is sometimes called conversor de señal analógica a digital. This conversor also does not come from a Latin
word, but it is formed from the stem convers‑
and the agentive suffix ‑or, by analogy
with other agentive nouns derived from prefixed vĕrtĕre verbs. Sometimes a converter/or can also translate as transformador (cf. Eng. transformer).
[1] A convertible
(car) is known in Spanish as un descapotable,
a borrowing from French décapotable
(1927), a noun related to the verb décapoter
‘to lower the top of’ (1929), derived from the feminine noun capote ‘greatcoat, bonnet, car top’ (cf.
Sp. capota ‘folding cover’), related
to the masculine capot ‘cover, hood’
(bonnet in British English) (cf.
dialectal Sp. capó ‘car hood’, also
known as cofre in some Spanish-speaking
countries).
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