revert

English

Etymology

From Old French revertir, from Vulgar Latin *revertiō, variant of Latin revertō.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: rə-vûrtʹ, rĭ-vûrtʹ, rē-vûrtʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvɝt/, /ɹiˈvɝt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvɜːt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (one who reverts to a religion, one who converts to Islam):
  • (General American) enPR: rēʹvûrt', IPA^(key): /ˈɹiˌvɝt/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːˌvɜːt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t, -iːvɜː(ɹ)t
• Hyphenation: re‧vert

Noun

revert (plural reverts)

1. One who, or that which, reverts.
2. (religion) One who reverts to that religion which one had adhered to before having converted to another.
   • 2010, Kurt J. Werthmuller, Coptic Identity and Ayyubid Politics in Egypt: 1218-1250, page 77:

     [...] Cyril III ibn Laqlaq’s correspondence which reflects genuine—if intentionally vague—concern for the secretive community of Christian converts and reverts [who had converted to Islam before].

3. (Islam, due to the belief that all people are born Muslim) A convert to Islam.
   • 1997, Islamic Society of North America, Islamic horizons, page 27:

     Zeba Siddiqui, herself a revert and editor of the Parent's Manual: A Guide for Muslim Parents Living in North America, contributed to this book as a consultant.

   • 2001, Islamic Society of North America, Islamic horizons:

     Parents should not reject a proposal without good reason — and being a revert with a past is not an acceptable one.

4. (computing) The act of reversion (of e.g. a database transaction or source control repository) to an earlier state.

   We've found that git reverts are at least an order of magnitude faster than SVN reverse merges.

5. The skateboard maneuver of rotating the board 180 degrees or more while the wheels remain on the ground.
   • 2007, Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz, Matthias Böttger, Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism, page 124:

     In short tutorials, the player learns the basics of skating: reverts, manuals and the ollie […]

Derived terms

• revert war
• three-revert rule

 

Translations

one who reverts

• Finnish: kääntyjä, palaaja (concrete), käännynnäinen (fi) (religious, ideological)
• Italian: convertito (it) m

Islamic usage: convert to Islam

• Finnish: palaaja
• Occitan: conversion (oc)

computing

Verb

revert (third-person singular simple present reverts, present participle reverting, simple past and past participle reverted)

1. (transitive, now rare) To turn back, or turn to the contrary; to reverse.
   • c. 1700, Matthew Prior, A Passage in the Moriae Encomium of Erasmus:

     Till happy Chance reverts the cruel scene.

   • 1728, James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:

     The trembling stream […] / Reverted, plays in undulating flow.

2. To throw back; to reflect; to reverberate. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (transitive) To cause to return to a former condition.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii], page 275, column 2:

     Conuert his Gyues to Graces. So that my Arrowes / Too ſlightly timbred for ſo loud a Winde, / Would haue reuerted to my Bow againe, / And not where I had arm’d them.

4. (transitive) To reverse (a change).
   • 1998, Tamar E. Granor, Ted Roche, Steven Black, Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 6.0, page 826:

     This makes sense because you've committed the changes locally, but then reverted them at the server level.

   • 2008, John Broughton, Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, page 82:

     You can use page histories to easily revert (that is, reverse) another editor's inappropriate edit.

   • 2008, Kidd, Terry T., Chen, Irene, Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, page 261:

     When s.o.'s edit doesn't apply to my standards, I can revert it. And that person can revert me too.

5. (transitive) To reverse a change made by (a person).
   • 2008, Kidd, Terry T., Chen, Irene, Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, page 261:

     When s.o.'s edit doesn't apply to my standards, I can revert it. And that person can revert me too.

   • 2014, Simon DeDeo, “Group minds and the case of Wikipedia”, in Human Computation:

     She has, in other words, two beliefs: βc (the probability that the next editor will revert her, given that she cooperated) and βr (the probability that the next editor will revert her, given that she {{..}}

6. (intransitive) To return to the possession of.

   When a book goes out of print, rights revert from the publisher to the author.

   1. (intransitive, law) Of an estate: To return to its former owner, or to his or her heirs, when a grant comes to an end.
7. (transitive) To cause (a property or rights) to return to the previous owner.

   Sometimes a publisher will automatically revert rights back to an author once a book has gone out of print.

8. (intransitive) To return to a former practice, condition, belief, etc.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

9. (intransitive, biology) To return to an earlier or primitive type or state; to take on the traits or characters of an ancestral type.
10. (intransitive) To change back, as from a soluble to an insoluble state or the reverse.

    Phosphoric acid in certain fertilizers reverts.

11. (intransitive) To take up again or return to a previous topic.
12. (intransitive, now rare) To return; to come back.

    If they attack, we will revert to the bunker.

13. (intransitive, Islam) To convert to Islam.
    • 1995, Wizārat al-Iʻlām wa-al-Thaqāfah, “Sudanow”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 20:

      He added that Islam is the religion of justice which rejects injustice, referring to the case of Mike Tyson and how he has become a real problem to the West since he reverted to Islam.

    • 1997, Islamic Society of North America, Islamic horizons:

      The mission of 'translating' the Qur'an had preoccupied Pickthall's mind since he reverted to Islam.

    • 2003, Islamic Revival Association, Al Jumuʻah: Volume 15, Issues 7-12:

      But once he reverted to Islam, he attended as many lectures as he could, listened to Islamic tapes and the recitations of Qur'an. Subtly and gradually his moods were stabilized, and he started to have positive outlook on life.

14. (intransitive, originally India, now also, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong) To reply (to correspondence, etc.).

    Synonym: revert back

    Please revert before Monday.

15. (transitive, mathematics) To treat (a series, such as $y=a+bx+cx^{2}+\cdots$, where one variable $y$ is expressed in powers of a second variable $x$), so as to find the second variable $x$ expressed in a series arranged in powers of $y$.
    • 1990, George A. Baker, Jr., J. D. Johnson, “Thomas-Fermi Equation of State - The Hot Curve”, in Valdir C. Aguilera-Navarro, editor, Condensed Matter Theories, volume 5, →ISBN, page 5:

      First we revert the series expansion (3.6) to give $z(\zeta )$ as a series in $z$.

    • 2005, Frank Y. Wang, Physics with MAPLE: The Computer Algebra Resource for Mathematical Methods in Physics, →ISBN, pages 518–9:

      To express $z$ as a power series of $n\lambda ^{3}$, we first expand $g_{3/2}(z)$ in $z$ […] We then revert the power series to express $z$ in terms of $n\lambda ^{3}$.

    • 2016, Linda E. Reichl, A Modern Course in Statistical Physics, 4th edition, →ISBN, page 218:

      We can revert the series expansion of $\langle n\rangle \lambda _{T}^{3}/g$ […] and obtain a series expansion for the fugacity $z$ in terms of $\langle n\rangle \lambda _{T}^{3}/g$, […]

Derived terms

• (a return to a previous state): reversion
• revert back
• reverter
• revertible
• revertive

Translations

to turn back, or to the contrary; to reverse

• Bulgarian: обръщам (bg) (obrǎštam)
• Finnish: palata (fi), peruuttaa (fi), kääntyä takaisin
• French: retomber (fr), retourner (fr), redevenir (fr)
• German: rückgängig machen
• Greek: επαναφέρω (el) (epanaféro)
• Italian: ritornare (it), retrocedere (it), ribaltare (it), invertire (it)
• Occitan: tornar (oc), retornar
• Spanish: revertir (es)

to throw back; to reflect; to reverberate

• Bulgarian: връщам (bg) (vrǎštam), отразявам (bg) (otrazjavam), отразявам (bg) (otrazjavam)
• Finnish: palauttaa (fi)
• French: renvoyer (fr), réverbérer (fr), refléter (fr)
• Italian: ripensare (it), riflettere (it), ripercuotere (it), ripercuotersi
• Occitan: reflectir (oc), remandar (oc), tornar (oc), reverberar

to cause to return to a former condition

• Bulgarian: връщам (bg) (vrǎštam)
• Finnish: palauttaa (fi)
• Italian: ripristinare (it), riallacciare (it), regredire (it)
• Occitan: retornar, tornar (oc), rendre (oc)

to return; to come back

• Bulgarian: връщам се (vrǎštam se)
• Finnish: perääntyä (fi), palata (fi)
• Italian: tornare (it), ritornare (it)
• Occitan: tornar (oc), retornar
• Polish: powrócić (pl)

to return to the possession of

• Bulgarian: взимам обратно (vzimam obratno)
• Finnish: palata (fi), palautua (fi)
• Occitan: tornar (oc), retornar

to cause to return to the previous owner

• Bulgarian: връщам (bg) (vrǎštam)
• Finnish: palata (fi), palautua (fi)

to return to a former practice, condition, belief, etc.

• Finnish: palata (fi)
• Italian: riprendere (it)

biology: to return to an earlier or primitive type or state

• Finnish: taantua (fi), palata (fi)
• Italian: ripristinare (it), regredire (it)
• Spanish: revertir (es)

to change back, as from a soluble to an insoluble state or the reverse

• Finnish: palautua (fi)

to return to a previous subject of discourse or thought

• Finnish: palata (fi)

Muslim usage: to convert to Islam

• Finnish: palata (fi)

to reply

• Bulgarian: отговарям (bg) (otgovarjam)
• Finnish: palata (fi) (usually with asiaan)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} retourner (fr), ^{(please verify)} revenir (fr)

Usage notes

In the Islamic sense, revert is popularly and colloquially used due to the belief that all people are born Muslim, however, many Muslims and some of Islam's authority figures object to this as being illogical and inaccurate based on linguistic and theological grounds.

References

• “revert”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Verret

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈrɛvɛrt]

Noun

revert m inan

1. (law) the unauthorised return of the deportee to the place from which he was deported
2. (computing) the act of reversion (of e.g. a database transaction or source control repository) to an earlier state

Declension

Declension of revert (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	revert	reverty
genitive	revertu	revertů
dative	revertu	revertům
accusative	revert	reverty
vocative	reverte	reverty
locative	revertu	revertech
instrumental	revertem	reverty

Related terms

• revertovat

 

Further reading

• revert in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957