tortoise

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tortuce, also tortu and tortuse,^[2][3][4] partly borrowed from Medieval Latin tortūca and partly borrowed from Old French tortue;^[2][5][6][7] the American Heritage Dictionary names the Anglo-Norman form tortouse.^[5] According to the OED, tortuce represents the Latin and tortu the French form, and in the 16th century the Spanish word tortuga was used as well.^[2][6] The spellings tortoyse (1552) and then tortoise (c. 1569) are of obscure origin: the OED explains them from shifting stress and a weakened final vowel, and partly from taking the possessive in tortu's shell as the noun,^[2][8][9] and Barnhart and Etymonline suggest the influence of porpoise.^[4][10] The Medieval Latin word, recorded from c. 1255 in Albertus Magnus,^[2] is of uncertain origin.^[6][7] Barnhart, the American Heritage Dictionary, Klein and Dictionary.com derive it from Late Latin tartarūchus (“of the underworld”), from Latin Tartarus, the tortoise being seen as an infernal animal,^{[4][5][11][12]} the source also of Italian tartaruga;^[11] the OED reports the common view that it is from Latin tortus (“twisted”), after the crooked feet of the southern European species,^[2][10][8] a link others see only as an influence on the spelling.^[4][11][12] The classical name in Latin was testūdō, from testa (“shell”).^[2][10] Turtle, the sea reptile, is generally taken as an alteration of the French word.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A four-footed reptile whose body is enclosed in a shell: 1398, in J. Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew de Glanville.^[2] Barnhart's first record is tortuce in 1440.^[4] Etymonline dates tortuse to the late 14th century, and to about 1200 in surnames.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline suggests that the word was probably first applied to a land tortoise of southern Europe.^[10] Johnson (1755) noted that there were tortoises "both of land and water", and also recorded the military sense,^[14] the shelter or shield-roof under which besiegers were protected as a tortoise is by its shell, recorded from 1569 and used like Latin testudo.^[2][15] From 1648 a tortoise could also be an image of the animal, and since 1702 the word was short for tortoiseshell.^[2] The animal became a type of slowness of motion, and so a name for a slow person, from 1825, in Scott's Talisman;^[2][15][9] in Kent dialect the cuttlefish was called a tortoise.^[16]

Timeline

• 1398 – the reptile.^[2]
• 1440 – the form tortuce.^[4]
• 1552 – the form tortoyse.^[4][2]
• 1569 – a shelter for besiegers; the form tortoise.^[2]
• 1648 – an image of a tortoise.^[2]
• 1702 – short for tortoiseshell.^[2]
• 1825 – a type of slowness; a slow person.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slow-moving land reptile of the family Testudinidae, with a domed shell into which it can draw its head and legs; in wider use any turtle: The old tortoise lived in the vegetable garden.^[15][9][2]
2. A very slow person or thing.^[15][9][2]
3. A testudo, a cover of shields or a shelter that protected soldiers attacking a wall.^[15][2]

Word family

• tortoiseshell
• desert tortoise
• giant tortoise
• gopher tortoise
• tortoise beetle

Related words

• turtle
• Tartarus
• testudo
• porpoise

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 r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ 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)