The term pervert was first introduced into the English language in the late 14th century as a verb denoting the act of “altering something from its intended state” (such as in the phrase pervert the course of justice). The noun form of the word emerged in the 1500s with the definition of “one who has been perverted to an immoral set of values”. Initially, this did not carry the modern connotation and could refer to individuals who converted from Christianity. However, by the 1850s, it became associated with sexual deviancy. The word can be traced back to the Old French term pervertir, which meant “to undo”, and further derives from the Latin word pervertere, signifying “to corrupt” or, more literally, “to turn the wrong way”. Ultimately, this stems from the prefix per- (meaning “away”, from Proto-Indo-European per, “forward”) and the root vertere (meaning “to turn”, from PIE wer, also “turn”).
