tornar

Forms

tornar (first-person singular present torno, first-person singular preterite torní, past participle tornat); root stress: (Northern) /u/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /o/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan tornar, which is inherited from Latin tornō (“to turn on a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “lathe”), which Coromines connects with τείρω (teírō, “to pierce”).^[2]

In Latin the verb meant to give a rounded shape on the lathe, as in Cicero's ⟨tornare sphaeram⟩; from there came “to turn into a shape or state”, and the other senses.^[2][5] The same Latin verb is Italian tornare, French tourner, Occitan tornar, Spanish tornar, Portuguese tornar and Romanian turna, which means “to pour”.^[6]

Coromines notes that Catalan never had the sense “to spin round”, which French and Italian have; the DCVB, on the contrary, puts “to turn” first and derives the senses “to go back”, “to repeat” and “to change into” from it.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Homilies d'Organyà already have the verb, with the moral and abstract senses that dominate from the start: the things of the world tornen en nient “come to nothing”, and the pronominal tornad-vos a mi “turn to me”.^[2] A 12th-century document from the Alt Cardener has it in the sense of going back to a place.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The senses “to go back” and, with a transitive verb, “to bring back, return” soon became the main ones;^[2] Jaume I's chronicle, Desclot and Muntaner use tornar-se'n “to go back”.^[2] Other medieval senses were to retract one's word, to translate (the Curial speaks of those who turned the books of Tristan and Lancelot from French into Catalan), and to revive someone who has fainted.^[7][5]

With a and an infinitive, tornar became the ordinary way of saying that something happens again: torna a ploure.^[8][4] Bruguera dates the verb to Llull in the 14th century, later than Coromines, and records retornar in Llull, tornador in 1344 and tornall in 1418.^[3]

Timeline

• 1175–1224 – the Homilies d'Organyà: tornen en nient.^[2][9]
• 1250 – a heresy trial from the Alt Cardener uses tornar for converting someone from evil to good.^[2]
• c. 1326 – a report of a Catalan legate uses és tornat for a runaway brought back.^[2]
• 1440 – the Curial uses tornar for translating.^[7]
• 1460 – the Tirant lo Blanc has Tirant brought round with rose water.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To return, to go or come back to where one started: Marxem dimarts i tornem diumenge.^[8][4]
2. (auxiliary, with a and infinitive) To do or happen again: Ja torna a nevar.^[8][1]
3. (transitive) To give back, to return something to its place or its owner: Has de tornar els llibres a la biblioteca.^[8][4]
4. (pronominal) tornar-se'n, to go back to where one came from.^[8]
5. (pronominal) To become, to turn into: tornar-se vell.^[1][5]
6. tornar en si, to come round, to recover one's senses.^[8][7]

Word family

• retornar
• torna
• tornada
• tornador
• tornall
• contornar
• trastornar

Related words

• torn
• entorn
• Latin tornō
• Occitan tornar
• French tourner

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 8, 605
3. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 910
4. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. tornar
5. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. tornar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8794
7. ^ a b c d Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. tornar
8. ^ a b c d e f Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. tornar
9. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. tornar