1. from OED: "verse" - [OE. fers, corresponding to OFris. fers (WFris. fêrs, NFris. fês, etc.), MDu. (Du.) and MLG. vers, OHG., MHG. vers, fers (G. vers), ON. (Da., Sw.) vers, ad. L. versus a line or row, spec. a line of writing (so named from turning to begin another line), verse, f. vert[e]re to turn; in ME. reinforced by or newly a. AF. and OF. (also mod.F.) vers (= Pr. vers, It., Sp, Pg. verso) from the same source....]

from OED: "universe" - [a. F. univers (12th c.; = Sp., Pg., It. universo), ad. L. [u]niversum n., the whole world, orig. neut. sing. of [u]niversus all taken collectively, universal, f. [u]nus UNI- and versus, pa. pple. of vert[e]re to turn.]

Interesting to note that "verse" (as in, for example, literary verse) has some connection to "to turn" (and, if I understand correctly, OED says "verso" in Romance languages comes from the same root, and to French this means roughly 'the other side', of say a piece of paper: i.e. you must turn the page), and "universe" is composed of uni- and versus: "to turn".

Circa 1374, "universe" was first defined as "in universe, universally, of universal application.". It wasn't until 1589 that it came to stand for "The whole of created or existing things regarded collectively; all things (including the earth, the heavens, and all the phenomena of space) considered as constituting a systematic whole, esp. as created or existing by Divine power; the whole world or creation; the cosmos." I can't help but wonder if it's no accident (having only a very basic knowledge of 16th century thought), when "universe" was applied in the way we understand it, whether or not there was in people's minds the idea of a "verse", and the correlation between macro- and micro-cosms; that the cosmos could be read like a book (i.e. similitude).

Purely speculative, but interesting (to me) nonetheless.

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