torrid

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin torridus (“dried with heat, parched”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from torreō (“to dry with heat, parch”),^[2][3][5][6] with the suffix -idus,^[7] from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“to dry”).^[3][5] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also allow French torride as the source,^[8][9][10] a form the OED only compares, recorded in Rabelais in 1546.^[2] The English use began with the phrase torrida zona, feminine of the adjective,^[4][3] which is already in Virgil's “Georgics”.^[2][11] Klein relates the verb to terra (“earth”), literally "dry land",^[6] and Weekley, Barnhart and Dictionary.com connect it with thirst.^[11][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The region of the earth between the tropics, in torrid zone: 1590, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great,^[2] which Barnhart dates 1586.^[4] Etymonline has the 1580s, and adds that the Latin phrase itself was used in English from the late 14th century.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1545 as the first known use of the sense "parched with heat".^[12]

Semantic evolution

From the geographical phrase the adjective spread to anything scorched or intensely hot, a use recorded from 1611, in Cotgrave.^[2][4][3] A colour sense, burned or blackened by burning, is recorded only from 1634 to 1650.^[2] Figurative use began with the "heat" of persecution or the burning of heretics, before 1635, and went on to people hot in temper or passion, ardent or zealous, from 1646, in Crashaw.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave three senses, "parched", "burning" and the application to the regions between the tropics.^[13] Modern dictionaries define the figurative sense as passionate or emotionally charged.^[9][12][14] From 1771 the word could also describe what inhabits the torrid zone.^[2] A British slang use for "drunk" is recorded in the Sporting Times in 1910.^[15]

Timeline

• 1590 – torrid zone, the region between the tropics.^[2]
• 1611 – scorched; intensely hot.^[2][4]
• 1634 – of colour, burned, blackened (last recorded 1650).^[2]
• before 1635 – figurative, of the "heat" of persecution.^[2]
• 1646 – hot in temper or passion, ardent.^[2]
• 1771 – inhabiting the torrid zone.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. So hot and dry as to parch or scorch: the torrid plains of the interior.^[14][12]
2. Giving off intense heat: a torrid afternoon sun.^[12][2]
3. Full of passion; highly charged emotionally: a torrid romance.^[14][12][9]
4. torrid zone: the part of the earth lying between the tropics.^[2][9]

Word family

• torridity
• torridly
• torridness
• torrid zone

Related words

• torrent
• toast
• thirst

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com