torsion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English torcion, also torcioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French torsion (“colic”), recorded in French from 1314,^[4][3][5] and directly borrowed from Late Latin torsiō (“a wringing, griping”),^[3][2] a variant of tortiō (“torture, torment”),^[3][2][6] a noun of action from the past participle tortus of torqueō (“to twist, wring”).^[4][3][7] Etymonline traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *terkw- (“to twist”).^[3] The Anglo-Norman form torcion, colic or stomach cramp, is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century.^[8] The OED compares Spanish torsión and Portuguese torsão, and Italian torzione from the Latin form in -t-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wringing or griping pain in the bowels, colic: about 1425, in a translation of Arderne's treatises on fistula,^[4] and probably before 1425 in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense of colic was the earliest in English and died out in the late 17th century.^[4][5] The general sense, the action of twisting a body by contrary forces acting about its axis, is recorded from 1543, in Traheron's translation of Vigo's surgery,^[4][2][9] and Johnson (1755) defined the word simply as the act of turning or twisting.^[10] Later uses are technical: in surgery, the twisting of the cut end of an artery to stop bleeding (1835), in mathematics the degree to which a curve departs from a plane (1862), in botany the spiral twisting of a plant part (1875), in zoology the twisting of the visceral hump of gastropod molluscs during their development (1888), and in chemistry the restricted rotation of a group about a bond (1932).^[4] The Shorter Oxford also records the medical sense of a twisting of a loop of intestine or of a testis.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – a wringing pain in the bowels, colic (obsolete by 1689).^[4][2]
• 1543 – the action of twisting a body by contrary forces; the twisted state it produces.^[4][2][9]
• 1660 – a twisting of the body or a part of it.^[4]
• 1835 – in surgery, the twisting of a cut artery to stop bleeding.^[4]
• 1862 – in mathematics, the departure of a curve from a plane.^[4]
• 1875 – in botany, the condition of being twisted spirally.^[4]
• 1888 – in zoology, the twisting of the visceral hump of gastropods.^[4]
• 1932 – in chemistry, restricted rotation about a bond.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of twisting or turning, or the state of being twisted: The rope snapped under the torsion.^[12][9][4]
2. (physics) The twisting of a body by equal and opposite torques at its two ends, or the stress produced in it in this way.^[12][9]
3. (medicine) The twisting of an organ or part, especially of a loop of intestine or of a testis.^[5][11]
4. (mathematics) A measure of how far a curve departs from lying in a plane at a given point.^[4][9]
5. (zoology) The twisting of the body of a gastropod through 180 degrees during its development.^[4]
6. (obsolete, c. 1425–1689) A griping pain in the bowels; colic.^[4][5][3]

Word family

• torsional
• torsionally
• torsion balance
• torsion bar
• torsion pendulum

Related words

• torque
• torse
• tortuosity
• torture
• torment
• contortion
• distortion
• retort
• tort
• torso

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins