circumvert

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin circumvertō.

Verb

circumvert (third-person singular simple present circumverts, present participle circumverting, simple past and past participle circumverted)

1. (transitive) To rotate; to cause to turn around.
   • 1779, Challoner, Richard, The Garden of the Soul: or, a Manual of Spiritual Exercises and Instructions for Christians‎^[1]:

     Let not the Devil circumvert us by his Frauds and Deceits;

   • 1806, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham Castle and Town‎^[2]:

     Then he employ'd all his witt to circumvert her in discource, to have gotten something out of her concerning some persons they aym'd at, which if he, I believe would have bene beneficiall to him;

   • 1910, Manning, Henry Parker, 1859-1956, The fourth dimension simply explained‎^[3]:

     In order to circumvert a figure, it must be turned around or maneuvered in the next higher dimension. Thus, a line must be turned through a plane, a polygon through 3-space, and a solid through 4-space.

2. Misspelling of circumvent.
   • 1812, Addison, Joseph, 1672-1719, Steele, Richard, Sir, 1672-1729, The Spectator‎^[4]:

     There is no question but these young Machiavels will in a little time turn their college upside down with plots and stratagems, and lay as many schemes to circumvert one another in a frog or a salad, as they may hereafter put in practice to overreach a neighbouring prince or state.

   • 1812, Thomas Branagan, Rights of God, Written for the Benefit of Man, page 109:

     […] and we cannot wonder at it, when we remember that the object of tyrannical governments, in order to stretch taxation to excess, and circumvert the mouth of labour, is to plunge nations into all the horrors of war, shackle the press, exhibit a great shew of grandeur and pomp, encourage such songs and toasts as are likely to enslave the mind, and suffocate reflection.

   • 1869, Hoffmann, Franz, 1814-1882, The adventures of Leo Rembrandt;‎^[5]:

     "Don’t trouble yourself; my efforts to circumvert the wicked plans of our persecutor have been successful."

   • 1904 October, David E. Gordon, “Early California Journalism”, in The Overland Monthly, volume 44, number 4, page 427:

     Here dust seemed to be the aggressor, for the long rows of unused column-wide type on the office battery were artistically frescoed with Second and F street dust—in fact, so thouroughly circumverted by the wily invader that they seemed frozen to the resting place.

   • 1973, Progress in Vision and Robotics‎^[6]:

     The ant's curvacious path might seem to be an insanely complex ritual to someone locking only at a history of it traced on paper. But in fact the humble ant is merely trying to circumvert the beach's obstacles and go home.

   • 1979, Brain, James Lewton, The last taboo : sex and the fear of death‎^[7]:

     Parents researched birth charts probably not so much to assure good fortune as to circumvert incest in a population that has but one hundred surnames.

   • 1992, Radio Fun April 1992‎^[8]:

     A new book […] will help NASA and space enthusiasts circumvert the often thin or nonexistent space coverage provided by the major media and, instead, stay up-to-date with information direct from the source.

   • 1994, Coastal Dynamics (Conference) (1st : 1994 : Barcelona, Spain), Coastal Dynamics '94‎^[9]:

     It has been simply deduced from the data to circumvert the poor fit provided in the usual closure submodels.

See also

• circumvent
• “circumvert”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.