Etymology: < Middle French ouvert (13th cent. in Old French as overt opening, aperture), use as noun of ouvert , past participle (see overt adj.).With sense 3 compare French à l'ouvert (1461–72 in Middle French as a l'ouvert; mid 13th cent. in Anglo-Norman as a uvert).

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Old French uvert, overt (c1100), Old French, Middle French ouvert (c1230; French ouvert ), past participle of Anglo-Norman and Old French uvrir, ovrir, Old French ouvrir to open (late 10th cent. as obrir ; Middle French, French ouvrir ; compare Old Occitan, Occitan obrir (c1070), ubrir , Catalan obrir (1279)) < post-classical Latin operire to open (isolated attestation in an 8th-cent. glossary), alteration of classical Latin aperīre to open (see aperient adj. and n.), perhaps after its antonym cooperīre to cover (see cover v.¹), which came to prevail over the simple form operīre to cover (see operculum n.). Compare covert adj.In forms with final -e perhaps after the French feminine form. N.E.D. (1904) gives only the pronunciation (ō^u·vəɹt) /ˈəʊvət/.