controversy

English

Etymology

From Middle English controversie, from Old French controversie, from Latin contrōversia (“debate, contention, controversy”), from contrōversus (“turned in an opposite direction”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) now more common: IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹɒvəsi/, more traditional: IPA^(key): /ˈkɒntɹəˌvɜːsi/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑntɹəˌvɝsi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

controversy (countable and uncountable, plural controversies)

1. A debate or discussion of opposing opinions; (generally) strife.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dispute

   • 1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 11, recto:

     [A]nd it is without all controuerſie, that learning doth make the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant to gouernment; whereas Ignorance makes them churlish[,] thwart, and mutinous; [...]

   • 1911 [1888], Ellen G. White, “Introduction”, in The Great Controversy‎^[1], page x:

     From time to time I have been permitted to behold the working, in different ages, of the great controversy between Christ, the Prince of life, the Author of our salvation, and Satan, the prince of evil, the author of sin, the first transgressor of God's holy law.

   • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 – 2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎^[2], archived from the original on 15 July 2019:

     The game was engulfed in controversy when [Jack] Rodwell appeared to win the ball cleanly in a midfield challenge with [Luis] Suarez. The tackle drew an angry response from Liverpool's players – Lucas in particular as Suarez writhed in agony – but it was an obvious injustice when the England Under-21 midfielder was shown the red card.

Derived terms

• controversial
• Hesychast controversy
• pseudo-controversy
• teach the controversy

 

Related terms

• controversialist
• controvert
• controverter
• controvertible

Translations

debate, discussion of opposing opinions

• Arabic: جَدَل‎ (jadal)
• Armenian: վեճ (hy) (več), վիճաբանություն (hy) (vičabanutʿyun)
• Basque: eztabaida
• Belarusian: спор m (spor), спрэ́чка f (spréčka)
• Bulgarian: спор (bg) m (spor), диску́сия (bg) f (diskúsija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 爭論／争论 (zh) (zhēnglùn), 爭議／争议 (zh) (zhēngyì)

• Czech: kontroverze f
• Dutch: controverse (nl)
• Esperanto: disputado, polemiko
• Estonian: vaidlus
• Finnish: sanaharkka (fi), kiista (fi)
• French: controverse (fr) f, polémique (fr) f
• Galician: controversia (gl) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Kontroverse (de) f, Meinungsverschiedenheit (de) f
• Greek: διαμάχη (el) f (diamáchi)

  Ancient: ἀμφισβήτησις f (amphisbḗtēsis)

• Hebrew: מחלוקת‎ (he) f (makhloqet), חילוקי דעות‎ m pl (khiluqei de'ot)
• Hindi: विवाद (hi) m (vivād)
• Hungarian: vita (hu), polémia (hu)
• Italian: controversia (it) f
• Japanese: 論争 (ja) (ろんそう, ronsō)
• Korean: 논쟁 (ko) (nonjaeng), 토론 (ko) (toron), 논의 (nonui)
• Latin: contrōversia f
• Latvian: polemika f, kontroversija f
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: whiuwhiu kupu
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: هم ستیزی‎
• Polish: spór (pl) m
• Portuguese: controvérsia (pt) f, polêmica (pt) f
• Romanian: controversă (ro) f, dispută (ro) f, discuție (ro) f
• Russian: спор (ru) m (spor), диску́ссия (ru) f (diskússija), разногла́сия (ru) n pl (raznoglásija)
• Sanskrit: वादयुद्ध (sa) n (vādayuddha), विवाद (sa) m (vivāda)
• Scottish Gaelic: connspaid f, connsachadh m
• Serbo-Croatian: kontrovèrzija (sh) f, kontrovèrza (sh) f
• Spanish: controversia (es) f, polémica (es) f
• Swedish: kontrovers (sv) c
• Thai: การโต้เถียง, การวิวาท (th) (wí-wâat)
• Tibetan: རྩོད་རྙོག (rtsod rnyog), རྙོག་ཁྲ (rnyog khra), རྩོད་པ (rtsod pa)
• Turkish: ihtilaf (tr), cidal (tr), anlaşmazlık (tr), uyuşmazlık (tr), tartışma (tr), münazara (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: جدال‎ (cidal)

• Ukrainian: супере́ка f (superéka), спір m (spir)
• Vietnamese: tranh cãi (vi)
• Welsh: dadl (cy) f

Further reading

• “controversy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “controversy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “controversy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.