verse

verse · noun, verb¹

1. Latin · derived fromversus“a line in writing, and in poetry a verse; (originally) row, furrow”
2. Old French · derived fromvers
3. Old English · inherited fromfers
4. Middle English · inherited fromvers
5. English todayverse

From Middle English vers, from a mixture of Old English fers and Old French vers; both from Latin versus (“a line in writing, and in poetry a verse; (originally) row, furrow”), from vertō (“to turn around”).

verse · verb²

Back-formation from versus, misconstrued as a third-person singular verb verses.

Words from the same roots