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torture

Etymology and origin of the English word torture

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1425
Borrowed from
Middle French torture
Ultimate origin
Latin (torqueo)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈtɔːt͡ʃə/ (UK); /ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French torture (“infliction of great pain; agony”) and directly borrowed from Late Latin tortura (“twisting, writhing, torment”),[2][3][4][5] from tortus, the past participle of torquēre (“to twist, wind, torture”),[3][5][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to twist”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, contortion or a disorder characterized by it; severe pain: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's surgery.[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

The infliction of severe bodily pain as punishment or persuasion is from the 1550s (1551 in the OED).[3][7] Etymonline notes that judicial torture rested on the theory that an innocent person could not be made to confess by it, but a guilty one could.[3] Severe pain or anguish of body or mind is from about 1540.[7] The verb is from the 1580s (1588 in MWU, 1593 in the OED), and figurative from the 1620s.[3][5][7] Older English words for it were tormenterie and tormenting.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – contortion; severe pain.[2]
  • c. 1540 – anguish.[7]
  • 1551 – judicial torture.[7]
  • 1588 – the verb.[5]
  • 1620s – figurative verb.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The deliberate infliction of severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something.
  2. Great physical or mental suffering; anguish.

Verb

  1. To inflict severe pain on.
  2. To cause great mental suffering to; to torment.

Word family

  • torturer
  • torturable
  • torturedly
  • torturesome
  • torturingly
  • pretorture
  • torment
  • tort
  • contort
  • distort
  • retort
  • torque

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Torture.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/torture. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·