English → Latin
“avert” in Latin
āvertōto turn away, turn off, avert; to avoid, divert, deviate; to remove; to steal, embezzle, appropriate to oneselfāmoveōto remove from, move, put, or take away; to withdraw, retire; to take away by stealth, steal, or snatchdēpellōto drive out or away; remove, expel, repel; to drive, thrust or cast down; to drive or push away or dislodge an enemy frrepellōto drive, push or thrust back or away; reject, repulse, repel; to drive away, reject, remove, discard; keep off, hold baprōpulsōto drive forward, propel; to drive back, ward off, repel or repulse, avertdēfendōto drive away; to defend, guard or protect, to stand up for, to stick up fordēprecorto avert or ward off by (earnest) prayer; deprecate; to pray for, intercede on behalf of, beseech
The English word avert itself goes back to Latin ab, through āvertō.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
avert
PROP., avertere: amovere: one’s eyes from anybody, oculos dejicere ab aliquo (not avertere oculos, but oculos ab aliquo in alium avertere is correct): a blow [Vid: PARRY]: one’s thoughts from a subject, cogitationes avertere ab aliqua re, and ab aliquo. ImPROP., to avert an evil, aniovere, dejicere (to remove it): depellere (to drive off an approaching evil): repellere (to drive back one that has approached): propulsare: defendere (to ward it off): deprecari (to avert it by prayers): averruncare (of the gods). To avert a calamity by prayers, deprecari a se calamitatem: a war, amovere bellum; difendere bellum.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for avert?
- The usual Latin words for “avert” are āvertō, āmoveō, dēpellō; also repellō, prōpulsō, dēfendō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.