Other forms: controversies
A controversy is a long public argument that splits opinion. Cause controversy, a major controversy, the controversy over it.
It has to be public and it has to have two sides with real support — a private disagreement is not a controversy, and a settled question stops being one. It attaches to decisions, appointments and remarks. Note the stress, which is genuinely divided: controversy on the first syllable is standard in America and common in Britain, and controversy on the second is a British variant that raises tempers.
1nouncontroversyA long public argument that splits opinion.
“The new law caused great controversy, with protests in every major city.”
controversy is a public dispute.
Also accepted in games: dispute
Latin controversia comes from controversus, turned in an opposite direction — contra plus vertere, to turn. Convert, adverse and version come from the same turning.
Latin
contrōversia
Old French
controversie
Middle English
controversie
English, today
controversy
Built from
From Middle English controversie, from Old French controversie, from Latin contrōversia. From Middle English controversie, from Old French controversie, from Latin contrōversia (“debate, contention, controversy”), from contrōversus (“turned in an opposite direction”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA