My Word of the Day, Pervert

Pervert;

/pəˈvːt/ *verb [T] disapproving

What does it mean?

• -to change something so that it is not what it was or should be, or to influence someone in a harmful way
• -to act illegally to avoid punishment or to get the wrong person punished

Example:

If so, argues Fry, then the Qwerty keyboard and its inventor could be accused of "conspiracy to pervert the course of language and to limit the speed of creativity and language input, endangering billions with repetitive strain injury". Quoted from: BBC.co.uk

Etymology:

c.1300 (trans.), "to turn someone aside from a right religious belief to a false or erroneous one," from O.Fr.pervertir, from L.pervertere "corrupt, turn the wrong way, turn about," from per- "away" + vertere "to turn". Replaced nativefroward , which embodies the same image. The noun is attested from 1660s, "one who has forsaken a doctrine or system regarded as true, apostate;" psychological sense of "one who has a perversion of the sexual instinct" is attested from 1897 (Havelock Ellis), originally especially of homosexuals.

Synonyms:

• deprave , corrupt, debauch, lead astray, spoil, warp, distort , misinterpret, twist, misrepresent, change, alter, spoil, garble

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SuparNgeBLog

Posted in: English, MWOTD, Vocabulary