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verso

[vur-soh]
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noun, plural ver·sos. Printing.

a left-hand page of an open book or manuscript (opposed to recto).

RELATED WORDS

reversal, leaf, surface, signature, side, folio, recto, about-face, antithesis, back, underside, regression, inverse, bottom, flip-flop, retrogression, reversion, converse, contradictory, antipode

Nearby words

  1. versification,
  2. versify,
  3. versine,
  4. version,
  5. versioning,
  6. verst,
  7. versus,
  8. vert,
  9. vert.,
  10. vertebr-

Origin of verso

1830–40; short for Latin in versō foliō on the turned leaf

pollice verso

[pohl-li-ke wer-soh; English pol-uh-see vur-soh]

adverb Latin.

with thumbs turned downward: the sign made by spectators calling for the death of a defeated gladiator in the ancient Roman circus.

folio verso

[foh-lee-oh vur-soh; Latin foh-lee-oh wer-soh]

noun

the back of the page; verso (opposed to folio recto).

Origin of folio verso

From Latin
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for verso

British Dictionary definitions for verso

verso

noun plural -sos

  1. the back of a sheet of printed paper
  2. Also called: reversothe left-hand pages of a book, bearing the even numbersCompare recto
the side of a coin opposite to the obverse; reverse

Word Origin for verso

C19: from the New Latin phrase versō foliō the leaf having been turned, from Latin vertere to turn + folium a leaf
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for verso

verso

n.

1839, from Latin verso (folio), ablative singular neuter of versus, past participle of vertere "to turn" (see versus).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper