Word: overset Part of Speech: verb 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. Verb 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”) Pronunciation: /ˌəʊvəˈsɛt/, /ˌoʊvəɹˈsɛt/ 1. To knock over or overturn (someone or something); to capsize, to upset. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: A great ſhip overſet, or vvithout faile / Hulling, might (vvhen this vvas a vvhelp) be like this vvhale. 2. To physically or mentally disturb (someone); to upset; specifically, to make (someone) ill, especially nauseous; to nauseate, to sicken. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: O Lord, O Lord, ſhe's mad, poor Young VVoman, Love has turn'd her ſenſes, her Brain is quite overſet. Example: 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. 3. To throw (something, such as an organization, a plan, etc.) into confusion or out of order; to subvert, to unsettle, to upset. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: [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. Example: [B]y ſtriving to ſupport that chimerical Prerogative [papal infallibility], he [Robert Bellarmine] evidently overſetteth it. 4. To translate (a text). Labels: figuratively, rare, transitive Example: Overset into English, after the spirits and measures of the authentical; by Dr. Heinrich Krauss, Ph.D., and so wider. Example: [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. 5. To set (copy or type) in excess of a given space. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: 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." 6. To recover from (an illness). Labels: Scotland, figuratively, transitive 7. To cover (the surface of something) with objects. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: 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. 8. 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. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: […] 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, […] Example: 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. 9. To press (something) down heavily; to compress; also, to choke (a plant). Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: [T]he more they [holy plants] vvere oppreſsd and overſet vvith the vveight of Perſecution, the faſter, ſtronger, and ſtreighter they grevv up. 10. To put too heavy a load on (something); to overload. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: [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. 11. To come to rest over (something); to settle. Labels: obsolete, rare, transitive Example: 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. 12. To impose too heavy a tax on (someone); to overtax. Labels: figuratively, obsolete, rare, transitive Example: 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. 13. To recover (money) given in an exchange. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: [H]e that dealeth in barter muſt be very circumſpect, and the Money giuen in barter cannot be overſet. 14. To coil or stow away (a cable, a rope, etc.). Labels: obsolete, transitive 15. To turn, or to be turned, over; to capsize; to, or to be, upset. Labels: archaic, intransitive Example: [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; […] Example: 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. 16. Of a person or thing (such as an organization or plan): to become unbalanced or thrown into confusion; to be put into disarray. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: But, while kingdoms overset, / Or lapse from hand to hand, / Thy leaf shall never fail, nor yet / Thine acorn in the land.