torment

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English torment, also tourment and turment,^[2] borrowed from Old French torment, also tourment,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} Anglo-Norman turment, recorded from 1113–19 for torture, an instrument of torture, and the pains of martyrs and of the damned.^[8][3] Some Middle English forms such as tornement show confusion with tournament.^[2] The French word is a learned borrowing^[5] from Latin tormentum (“twisted cord, sling; engine for hurling stones; instrument of torture, rack”),^[4][3][7][9] which stands for an earlier *torquementum (“something worked by twisting”),^{[3][10][11][7][12]} from torqueō (“to twist”),^[4][13][10] from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to twist”).^[4][13] The Latin noun is also the source of tormento, tormento and tormento.^[3] The verb is inherited from Middle English tormenten,^[2][4][5] borrowed from Old French tormenter, also turmenter (12th century), formed from the French noun;^[3][4][5][6] compare Medieval Latin tormentō,^[3][6] from which Etymonline and Merriam-Webster derive the French verb.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An instrument of torture, and the infliction of torture as a punishment; also a state of great suffering: both about 1290, in the South English Legendary.^[3] The verb, to put to torture, appears in the same collection at the same date.^[3] Barnhart dates the noun to probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, and the verb to about 1300;^[5] Etymonline gives about 1300 for both.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains that the idea behind the word is an instrument of torture worked by twisting, from which came the senses "torture" and "great suffering".^[10] The Latin military sense, an engine worked by torsion for hurling stones and darts, was also used in Middle English, from about 1384 in the Wycliffite Bible until 1531.^[3][4] Another early sense, a violent storm or tempest, recorded from before 1300, is now obsolete except in the French form tourmente, which comes from the Latin plural tormenta.^[3][14] The weakened sense of a source of pain, trouble or annoyance is first found in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing (1600),^[3] and the word has been applied to a troublesome person since Cowper's The Task (1785).^[3] For a time (1578–1688) it was also a griping pain in the bowels.^[3] The verb widened in the same way: to afflict with suffering from 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's chronicle,^[3] to oppress a people or a church from the mid-14th century,^[4] and in a lighter sense, to tease or worry, from 1718, in a letter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.^[3] Caxton used it before 1492 for tossing or agitating something,^[3] and it could mean to twist or distort a meaning or style, a use recorded from 1647.^[3] Chaucer used the noun 58 times.^[15] Johnson (1755) defined it as anything that gives pain; pain, misery, anguish; and penal anguish, torture.^[16] In the dialects of Scotland, Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Kent and Devon the verb meant to provoke or irritate, with forms such as tarment and turment, and in mid-Yorkshire torment was a short form of tormentil.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – an instrument of torture; the infliction of torture; great suffering; verb, to torture.^[3]
• 1297 – verb, to afflict with suffering or misery.^[3]
• before 1300 – a violent storm (now obsolete).^[3]
• c. 1384 – an engine of war for hurling stones (obsolete by 1531).^[3][4]
• mid-14th century – verb, to oppress a people or church.^[4]
• before 1492 – verb, to toss or agitate (now obsolete).^[3]
• 1578 – a griping pain in the bowels (obsolete by 1688).^[3]
• 1600 – a source of pain, trouble or annoyance.^[3]
• 1647 – verb, to twist or distort a sense or style (obsolete by 1895).^[3]
• 1718 – verb, to tease or worry.^[3]
• 1785 – a person who causes trouble.^[3]
• 1852 – the punishment of hell.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Severe physical or mental suffering; agony or anguish: the torment of waiting for news.^[18][9][3]
2. A source of pain, worry or annoyance; also a troublesome person.^[18][3]
3. (archaic) The infliction of torture.^[18][9][3]
4. (archaic) An instrument of torture, such as the rack.^[18][3]
5. (obsolete) An engine of war worked by twisting, for hurling stones or darts (c. 1384–1531).^[3][4]
6. (obsolete) A violent storm or tempest.^[3][14]

Verb

1. To cause someone severe physical or mental suffering: He was tormented by doubt.^[18][9][3]
2. To tease, pester or annoy persistently: Stop tormenting your sister.^[18][3]
3. To put to torture.^[3][6]

Word family

• tormentingly
• tormentedly
• tormentingness
• tormentor

Related words

• torture
• torque
• tormentil
• tourmente
• torsion
• tort
• tortuous
• contort
• extort
• retort

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins