a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
c.1369, "wicked," from O.Fr. pervers, from L. perversus "turned away (from what is right), contrary, askew," pp. of pervertere "to corrupt" (see pervert). The L. word is glossed in O.E. by forcerred, from p.p. of forcyrran "to avoid," from cierran "to turn, return." Meaning
"wrong, not in accord with what is accepted" is from c.1568; sense of "obstinate, stubborn" is from 1579. It keeps the non-sexual senses of pervert (v.) and allows the psychological ones to go with perverted.