obverse \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:
1. facing the observer.
2. corresponding to something else as a counterpart.
3. having the base narrower than the top, as a leaf.
This Lion is distinctly a beautiful coin, admirably made, with its value in fine, clear letters circling the obverse side, and a head thereon -- of Newton, as I live!
-- H. G. Wells, "A Modern Utopia," 1905
I see the two of us, a blue shape, a red shape, in the brief glass eye of the mirror as we descend. Myself, my obverse.
-- Margaret Atwood, "The Handmaid's Tale," 1985
Obverse comes from the Latin ob +vertere literally meaning "to turn toward." It was first used in English in the mid-1600s.
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