Textiles and fashion

Le revers on this page is the lapel of a jacket, and the one French noun does four or five jobs that English hands to four or five unrelated words. On a garment it is the piece turned back on itself: the lapel here, and the turn-up at the bottom of a trouser leg. On a coin or a medal it is the side that is not the face, what English calls « the reverse », and le revers de la médaille is the set phrase for the unwelcome half of something good. In a life it is a reverse of fortune: un revers de fortune is a setback, and essuyer un revers is to suffer one. On a tennis court it is the backhand, the stroke played with the back of the hand leading, and le revers de la main is that back of the hand itself. One idea holds the whole set together — a surface turned over, so that what lay underneath now shows — while « lapel », « reverse », « setback » and « backhand » share nothing at all, and none of them can suggest another. Learn the word once here and the other four come with it.