torr

Forms

torr m (strong a-stem; genitive singular torres, nominative plural torras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin turris (“tower”).^[1][2][3] Durkin lists it among the early loans from Latin, made before about 650, and, following Frings, among the loans shared by English and the Netherlands.^[4][5] Bosworth and Toller compare Old High German turri, and Köbler Old Frisian turn and Old High German turn.^[6][3]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek τύρσις (túrsis), probably from a Mediterranean language.^[1][3]

The Latin vowel appears as ⟨o⟩, as in copor and box, where Old English loans usually have ⟨u⟩.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, added in the middle of the ninth century, where Psalm 47 has “Ymbsellað & clyppað hie secgað in torrum hire” (“Surround and embrace her, tell in her towers”), for Latin “narrate in turribus eius”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

It is the usual Old English word for a tower;^[10][6] Bosworth and Toller set it beside the native stīpel.^[10][6] It is used of the tower of a city wall, of the tower of Babel in Genesis A, of a lighthouse (glossing “farus”) and of the towers carried by elephants.^[6][3] In the Pastoral Care the bride's nose is like the tower on Mount Lebanon, and in The Ruin the towers lie fallen.^[6][1]

In the late Chronicle the word tūr, from Old French, appears beside it.^[11][12] The Middle English word tour, now English tower, continues both the Old English and the Old French word.^[13][14]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – in torrum hire “in her towers” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[8][9]
• 890×897 – se torr on Liuano ðæm munte in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[15][6]
• s. x² – hreorge torras “ruined towers” in The Ruin in the Exeter Book.^[16][1]
• s. x² – the tower of Babel in Genesis A in the Junius manuscript.^[17][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. a tower, watch-tower.^[6][18][3]
2. (glosses) a lighthouse.^[6][3]

Word family

• fȳrtorr

Descendants

• Middle English tour (→ English tower; Scots tour; Scots towr)^[1]

Usage notes

A homograph meaning “rock, crag, tor” is of British Celtic origin.^[6][19] It occurs mainly in place-names and charter bounds,^[20][21] for example in the bounds of a charter of 846 for land in Devon, “on ðone torr æt mercecumbes æwielme”, whose single sheet of the mid-ninth century several scholars hold to be contemporary.^[22][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 351
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. torr 1
4. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 111
5. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 158
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1004
7. ^ Brunner, Karl (1965), Altenglische Grammatik nach der angelsächsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers, 3rd ed., Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. § 60
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
9. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 139
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1021
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 355
13. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 513
18. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 346
19. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. torr 2
20. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 77
21. ^ LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
22. ^ The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 298