10 April 2017
obverse
[noun ob-vurs; adjective ob-vurs, ob-vurs]
noun
1. the side of a coin, medal, flag, etc., that bears the principal design (opposed to reverse ).
2. the front or principal surface of anything.
3. a counterpart.
4. Logic. a proposition obtained from another by obversion.
adjective
5. facing the observer.
6. corresponding to something else as a counterpart.
7. having the base narrower than the top, as a leaf.
Origin of obverse
Latin
1650-1660; < Latin obversus turned toward or against (past participle of obvertere), equivalent to ob- ob- + vert (ere) to turn + -tus past participle suffix, with tt > s
Can be confused
converse, inverse, obverse, reverse.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for obverse
Contemporary Examples
As for the obverse, my liberal allies, this explains why information that seems so obvious to us never gets through.
Bob Woodward and the Rules of Washington Morality
Michael Tomasky
March 2, 2013
The old Kaiser Franz Joseph, faithful and hardworking, was the obverse of the feckless and impetuous German kaiser.
Before the Fall: What Did the World Look Like in 1913?
Jacob Heilbrunn
June 8, 2013
Historical Examples
The piece was struck, with a tin backing applied, and the edges of the obverse were then crimped over.
American Military Insignia 1800-1851
J. Duncan Campbell and Edgar M. Howell.
This name was given them from the legend, on the obverse, iam.
The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6)
John Knox
It has an obverse and a reverse side, but it is always the same medal.
The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis De Tocqueville
The reverse of the sheet contained a will exactly like that on the obverse.
Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective
Ellis Parker Butler
In passing from the obverse of our coins to the examination of the opposite side, we do this by inverting the piece.
The New England Magazine Volume 1, No. 6, June, 1886, Bay State Monthly Volume 4, No. 6, June, 1886
Various
Now this lady and her husband were in obverse relative positions.
Evan Harrington, Complete
George Meredith
The obverse has the king’s head in profile, and the reverse the usual fire-altar and supporters.
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7. (of 7): The Sassanian or New Persian Empire
George Rawlinson
I don’t think nature intended to have them the obverse of men.
Evan Harrington, Complete
George Meredith
Anagram
verbose
be servo
Today’s quote
Madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
On this day
10 April 1815 – Indonesia’s Mount Tambora volcano begins a three month long eruption that lasted until 15 July 1815. It killed 71,000 people and affected the world’s climate for the next two years.
10 April 1912 – the ill-fated Titanic departs the port in Southampton, England bound for New York. On 14 April 1912, she hit an ice-berg and sank, killing more than 1,500 people.
10 April 1919 – death of Emiliano Zapata Salazar, Mexican revolutionary. Born 8 August 1879.
10 April 1979 – birth of Rachel Corrie, American peace activist. She was killed on 16 May 2003 when run over by an Israeli bulldozer that she was trying to stop from demolishing a Palestinian house in Gaza. Rachel was committed from an early age to human rights and caring for the poor as shown in this speech she gave in the fifth grade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g__QAJ5gtQk