overset
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌəʊvəˈsɛt/
ipa: /ˌoʊvəɹˈsɛt/
rhymes: -ɛt
Forms: form: oversets
form: oversetting
form: overset
form: overset
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: overset
form: overset
form: overset
form: overset
form: oversettest
form: overset
form: oversettedst
form: oversets
form: oversetteth
form: overset
form: overset
form: overset
form: overset
form: overset
form: overset
form: -
form: oversetting
form: overset
form: over-set
Etymology: PIE word
 *upér
The verb is derived from Middle English oversetten (“to place or set over, cover; to assail; to defeat, overcome, overpower, overthrow; to defer; to discredit, refute; to disregard, overlook, set aside; to hinder; to oppress; to repulse”), from Old English ofersettan (“to put in a position of authority; to overcome or be overcome; to set over”), from Proto-West Germanic *ubarsattjan (“to place above, set over; to establish, install”), from *ubarsittjan (“to abstain from, neglect; to occupy, possess; to sit over or upon”), from *ubar- (prefix meaning ‘above, over’) + *sittjan (“to sit”) (from Proto-Germanic *sitjaną (“to sit”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”)). By surface analysis, over- (prefix meaning ‘above, higher; excessive, excessively’) + set (verb). Doublet of oversit.
Sense 1.2.3 (“to translate (a text)”) is probably a calque of German übersetzen.
The adjective is derived from overset, the past participle form of the verb. The noun is also derived from the verb.
cognates
* Dutch overzetten (“to ferry, transport, translate”)
* Old High German ubarsezzen (Middle High German übersetzen, modern German übersetzen (“to cross over, translate”))
* Saterland Frisian uursätte (“to cross over, translate”)
* Swedish översätta (“to translate”)
* West Frisian oersette (“to translate”)
Senses: examples: text: For ſtill thy eyes, vvhich I may call the ſea, / Do ebbe and flovve vvith teares, the Barke thy body is: / Sayling in this ſalt floud, the vvindes thy ſighes, / Who raging vvith thy teares and they vvith them, / VVithout a ſudden calme vvill ouerſet / Thy tempeſt toſſed body.
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Iuliet. […] (Second Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, […], published 1599, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], signature [H4], verso:
text: A great ſhip overſet, or vvithout faile / Hulling, might (vvhen this vvas a vvhelp) be like this vvhale.
ref: a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “The Progresse of the Soule. The First Song.”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, stanza XXXI, page 16:
text: Up, and with W. Hewer by hackney coach to White Hall, where the King and Duke of York is gone by three in the morning, and had the misfortune to be overset with the Duke of York, the Duke of Monmouth, and the Prince, at the King's Gate in Holborne; and the King all dirty, but no hurt.
ref: 1669 March 18 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “March 8th, 1668–1669”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VIIII, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893–1899, →OCLC, pages 252–253:
text: VVe therefore truſted our ſelves to the Mercy of the VVaves, and in about half an hour the Boat vvas over-ſet by a ſudden Flurry from the North.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 6:
text: [T]he poſtilion, in turning too ſuddenly from the turnpike to the croſs-road, overſet the carriage.
ref: 1782, [Frances Burney], “A Cottage”, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume IV, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book VIII, page 226:
text: A reef between them also now began / To show its boiling surf and bounding spray, / But finding no place for their landing better, / They ran the boat for shore, and overset her.
ref: 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza CIV, page 171:
text: "Except when he overset the glass of wine at dinner," Miss Sharp said, with a haughty air and a toss of the head, "I never gave the existence of Captain Dobbin one single moment's consideration."
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vauxhall”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 53:
text: […] Goodman Pumpkin-without-salt, nay, rather Melon-without-savour, wrote down divers foolish matters and peccadilloes that women use to commit, such as […] cursing the cat, when it oversetteth the pots, and the like of such trifles that skill not a straw; and when he had written what seemed to him fit, he gave the scroll to his wife.
ref: 1890, Matteo Bandello, “The One-and-thirtieth Story. Gandino of Bergamo Writeth Down His Wife’s Sins and Giveth Them to the Friar who Heareth Her Confession and doth a Thousand Other Extravagances.”, in John Payne, transl., The Novels of Matteo Bandello Bishop of Agen […], volume 2, London: […] Villon Society […], →OCLC, pages 180–181:
glosses: To knock over or overturn (someone or something); to capsize, to upset.
examples: text: O Lord, O Lord, ſhe's mad, poor Young VVoman, Love has turn'd her ſenſes, her Brain is quite overſet.
ref: 1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 65:
text: He us’d all the Caution that he vvas able in letting me knovv a thing, vvhich it vvould have been a double Cruelty to have conceal’d; and yet it vvas too much for me; for as Grief had overſet me before, ſo did Joy overſet novv, and I fell into a much more dangerous Svvooning than I did at firſt, and it vvas not vvithout a great Difficulty that I vvas recover'd at all.
ref: 1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 358:
text: "Poor little tender-heart," said Ham, in a low voice. "Martha has overset her, altogether."
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I have a Change”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 24:
text: A thunderstorm is coming on, the maids say, and the hot and stifling air has overset the pretty dear; no wonder; they have felt their own knees all of a tremble all day long.
ref: 1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, “Shadow on the Sun-dial”, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 152:
synonyms: discompose
glosses: To physically or mentally disturb (someone); to upset; specifically, to make (someone) ill, especially nauseous; to nauseate, to sicken.
examples: text: [H]ad not the old Man run and fetch'd me a Cordial, I believe the ſudden Surprize of Joy had overſet Nature, and I had dy'd upon the Spot.
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 338:
text: [B]y ſtriving to ſupport that chimerical Prerogative [papal infallibility], he [Robert Bellarmine] evidently overſetteth it.
ref: 1749, Archibald Bower, “Liberius, Thirty-fifth Bishop of Rome”, in The History of the Popes, from the Foundation of the See of Rome, to the Present Time, volume I, Dublin: […] George Faulkner, […], →OCLC, page 187:
text: Amidſt the calm produced by the treaty an event took place vvhich had nearly overſet the vvhole negotiation.
ref: 1803, R[obert] C[harles] Dallas, “Letter III”, in The History of the Maroons, from Their Origin to the Establishment of Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone: […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Strahan, […], for T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], →OCLC, page 74:
text: [A] certain Calypso-Island detains him at the very outset; and as it were falsifies and oversets his whole reckoning.
ref: 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Romance”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 92:
text: Thus has the Tailor-art, so to speak, overset itself, like most other things; changed its centre-of-gravity; whirled suddenly over from zenith to nadir.
ref: 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Democracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker), page 215:
text: He spoke with the diffidence of a man who knew how slight a thing would overset the delicate organisation of the mind, and yet with the confidence of a man who had slowly won his assurance out of personal endurance and distress.
ref: 1859, Charles Dickens, “An Opinion”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book II (The Golden Thread), page 136:
text: So this is the creature who oversets the household and suborns servants and clergymen […]
ref: 1992, Hilary Mantel, “A New Profession (1788)”, in A Place of Greater Safety (A Marian Wood/Owl Book), New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, published 1998, →ISBN, part 2, page 128:
glosses: To throw (something, such as an organization, a plan, etc.) into confusion or out of order; to subvert, to unsettle, to upset.
examples: text: Overset into English, after the spirits and measures of the authentical; by Dr. Heinrich Krauss, Ph.D., and so wider.
ref: 1878 November 30, “‘Wanted, a Private Tutor’”, in [James Macaulay], editor, The Leisure Hour, volume XXVII, number 1405, London: [Religious Tract Society], →OCLC, page 756, column 2:
text: [T]he preparation for a world-literature must surely lie in the study of those methods of thought, those canons of literary art, which lie at the foundation of all literatures. The thought and its expression,—these are the two factors which must solve the problem; and it matters not how much we translate—or overset, as the Germans felicitously say—so long as we go no deeper and do not grasp at what all literatures have in common.
ref: 1891 January 15 (date delivered), Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “A World-literature”, in The New World and the New Book: An Address Delivered before the Nineteenth Century Club of New York City, Jan. 15, 1891 […], Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard Publishers, published 1892, →OCLC, page 230:
text: The lectures given in Berlin University by President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, of California, where he filled the Roosevelt professorship last year, are published by Karl J. Trübner, Strassburg, under the title of Unterricht und Demokratie in Amerika. They should be overset into English so as to reach a wider public here, for even his elementary descriptions of American universities would not be so superfluous to any of us as we think, and his frank and fair discussion of educational characteristics would be of value to all of us.
ref: 1910 December 1, “Literary Notes”, in William Hayes Ward, editor, The Independent, volume LXIX, number 3235, New York, N.Y.: Clarence W. Bowen, →OCLC, page 1220:
glosses: To translate (a text).
examples: text: Other [newspaper] articles, again, are rejected because there is no time to consider them, or because they are badly written, and the printers have no time to lose in bungling over hieroglyphics. The overseer now sees that he will have too much matter; and although all the week he has been declaring that he has been kept short of copy, now goes on the opposite tack, to avoid upsetting, or, as he says, "oversetting."
ref: 1855 October, Frederic Carrington, “Country Newspapers and Their Editors”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume CV, number CCCCXVIII, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 149:
topics: journalism
media
printing
publishing
glosses: To set (copy or type) in excess of a given space.
glosses: To recover from (an illness).
examples: text: Item, the bishop's great mitre, all oversett with orient pearle and stones, and silver ourgilt, the haill mitre extending to 5 pound 15 ounce weight.
ref: 1559 July 17 (Gregorian calendar), “The Preface. [Appendix No. II. Inventarium 1559. The Inventor of the Silver Worke of S. Machar in Old Aberdeen, Deliverd to the Custody of the Canons by Bishop William Gordon, 7 of July 1559, Subscribed with Thir Hands.]”, in C[osmo] I[nnes], Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis: Ecclesie Cathedralis Aberdonensis Regesta Que Extant […] [The Register of the Bishopric of Aberdeen: The Extant Records of the Cathedral Church of Aberdeen […]], volume I, Edinburgh: [Spalding Club], published 1845, →OCLC, page lxxxix:
english: The Register of the Bishopric of Aberdeen: The Extant Records of the Cathedral Church of Aberdeen […]
translation: The Register of the Bishopric of Aberdeen: The Extant Records of the Cathedral Church of Aberdeen […]
glosses: To cover (the surface of something) with objects.
examples: text: […] Brennus [i.e., Brennius] entending to haue more lande or all, aroſe againſt his brother Belyne [Belinus], and made vpon him ſharpe and mortall warre. In the which warre Brennus was ouerſet and compelled to flie the lande, and to ſayle to Armorica, nowe named little Briteyn, […]
ref: 1569, Richard Grafton, “The Sixt Age, and Sixt Part of this Chronicle”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume I, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey Toye, →OCLC, page 55:
text: At laſt being over ſet vvith multitudes (vvhich hath beene the fortune of the braveſt ſpirits upon earth) they choſe to bovv a little, rather than breake.
ref: 1640, I. H. [i.e., James Howell], “A Character of Monticolia”, in ΔΕΝΔΡΟΛΟΓΊΑ [DENDROLOGIA]. Dodona’s Grove, or, The Vocall Forrest, London: […] T[homas] B[adger] for H. Mosley [i.e., Humphrey Moseley] […], →OCLC, page 46:
text: […] There is alſo the vvilfully ignorant profeſſor, or him that is afraid to knovv more, for fear of the croſs; he is for picking and chuſing of truth, and loveth not to hazzard his all for that vvorthy name by vvhich he vvould be called: vvhen he is at any time overſet by arguments, or avvaknings of conſcience, he uſes to heal all, by, I vvas not brought up in this faith, as if it vvere unlavvful for Chriſtians to knovv more then hath been taught them at firſt converſion, […]
ref: 1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven; […], London: […] Francis Smith, […], →OCLC, page 143:
text: [T]hat would be a delightful scheme indeed, and completely do for us at once. Good Heaven! Brighton, and a whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton!
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 190:
glosses: To oppress or overwhelm (someone, their thoughts, etc.); to beset; also, to overpower or overthrow (someone, an army, a people, etc.) by force; to defeat, to overwhelm.
examples: text: [T]he more they [holy plants] vvere oppreſsd and overſet vvith the vveight of Perſecution, the faſter, ſtronger, and ſtreighter they grevv up.
ref: 1640, I. H. [i.e., James Howell], “Of Rhenusium and Bombycina”, in ΔΕΝΔΡΟΛΟΓΊΑ [DENDROLOGIA]. Dodona’s Grove, or, The Vocall Forrest, London: […] T[homas] B[adger] for H. Mosley [i.e., Humphrey Moseley] […], →OCLC, page 82:
glosses: To press (something) down heavily; to compress; also, to choke (a plant).
examples: text: [C]oming (for more frugality) in the common Boat, vvhich vvas overſet vvith Merchandize, and other Paſſengers, in a thick fog, the Veſſel turn'd over, and ſo many periſh'd, the Prince Palſgrave ſav'd himſelf by ſvvimming, but the young Prince clinging to the Maſt, and being entangled among the Tacklings, vvas half drovvn'd and half frozen to death: A ſad Deſtiny.
ref: 1625 March 7 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “X. To My Noble Lord, the Lord Clifford, from London.”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, section IV, page 161:
glosses: To put too heavy a load on (something); to overload.
examples: text: It [tobacco] is a good Companion to one that converſeth vvith dead Men [i.e., reads books], for if one hath been poring long upon a Book, or is toil'd vvith the Pen, and ſtupified vvith Study, it quickneth him, and diſpels thoſe Clouds that uſually o'erſet the Brain.
ref: 1646 January 11 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “VII. To Henry Hopkins, Esq”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume III, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, section VI, page 403:
glosses: To come to rest over (something); to settle.
examples: text: For thieves love among themselves: and so do the covetous of the world, as the usurers and publicans, which brought in great the emperor's tribute, and to make their most advantage, did overset the people.
ref: 1532 (reprinted 1573), William Tyndale, “An Exposition uppon the V. VI. VII. Chapters of Mathew, […]. The Fifth Chapter of Matthew.”, in Henry Walter, editor, Expositions and Notes on Sundry Portions of the Holy Scriptures, together with The Practice of Prelates. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] The University Press, published 1849, →OCLC, page 71:
glosses: To impose too heavy a tax on (someone); to overtax.
examples: text: [H]e that dealeth in barter muſt be very circumſpect, and the Money giuen in barter cannot be overſet.
ref: 1622, Gerard [de] Malynes, “Of Commutation or Bartring of Commodities”, in Consuetudo, vel, Lex Mercatoria: Or, The Ancient Law-merchant. […], 3rd edition, London: […] T[homas] Basset, […]; R. Chiswell, […]; T. Horne, […], and E. Smith, […], published 1686, →OCLC, 1st part, page 66:
qualifier: uncertain
glosses: To recover (money) given in an exchange.
topics: nautical
transport
qualifier: uncertain
glosses: To coil or stow away (a cable, a rope, etc.).
examples: text: [T]his Raft vvas ſo unvveildy, and ſo overloaden, that after I vvas enter'd the little Cove, vvhere I had landed the reſt of my Goods, not being able to guide it ſo handily as I did the other, it overſet, and threvv me and all my Cargoe into the VVater; […]
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 65:
text: VVhen all endeavours proved fruitleſs, and no hope of preſerving the ſhip remained, the barge vvas hoiſted out for the preſervation of the admiral, vvho entered it accordingly; but all diſtinction of perſons being novv aboliſhed, the ſeamen ruſhed into it in ſuch crovvds, that in a fevv moments it overſet.
ref: 1760, T[obias] Smollett, “George II”, in Continuation of the Complete History of England, volume II, London: […] Richard Baldwin, […], →OCLC, page 245:
text: If the pack is well strapped at the ends, and hung at full length—not doubled, for your life—across the pack-saddle, the traveller is safe. The saddle will certainly not fit, such is the imperfection of our transitory life; it will assuredly topple and tend to overset; but there are stones on every roadside, and a man soon learns the art of correcting any tendency to overbalance with a well-adjusted stone.
ref: 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “[Velay.] The Donkey, the Pack, and the Pack-saddle.”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 19:
glosses: To turn, or to be turned, over; to capsize; to, or to be, upset.
examples: text: But, while kingdoms overset, / Or lapse from hand to hand, / Thy leaf shall never fail, nor yet / Thine acorn in the land.
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Talking Oak”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza LXV, page 80:
glosses: Of a person or thing (such as an organization or plan): to become unbalanced or thrown into confusion; to be put into disarray.
Derived terms: word: oversetter
word: oversetting
Related terms: set over