turmoil

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The noun and the verb are found together early in the 16th century, and there is no corresponding word in French.^[2][8] Some have connected it with Old French tremouille (“mill hopper”), in the 17th century tremuye, modern trémie, with reference to the hopper's constant motion to and fro;^[2][8][9] Skinner had derived it from that word, as Johnson reports,^[10] and Barnhart and Klein describe this as an alteration under the influence of turn and moil, the French word going back to Latin trimodia (“vessel holding three modii”), from tri- (“three”) and modius (“a Roman dry measure”), which is related to modus (“measure”).^[11][12] Collins and Dictionary.com suggest instead perhaps turn and moil,^[13][14] and Johnson preferred a derivation from moil, to labour.^[10] Weekley proposed an unrecorded Anglo-Norman form from Old French trumel (“disturbance, tumult”), altered like troboil (“trouble”) or associated with moil.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A state of agitation or commotion; disturbance, tumult, trouble: 1526, in W. Bonde's Pylgrimage of Perfection.^[2][3][11] Etymonline and Dictionary.com find the word earlier as a verb, in the 1510s,^[8][14] while the OED's first verb quotation is from about 1529.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant to agitate, disquiet or torment, often in the phrase to toss and turmoil, and intransitively to be or live in agitation;^[2][6] it is now rare or archaic.^[2][13][8] From 1548 it also meant to toil or drudge, apparently by association with moil,^[2] a sense that survived in the dialects of Scotland, Westmorland, Lancashire and Devon.^[16][6] The noun had a short-lived sense of harassing labour or toil in the later 16th century.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "trouble; disturbance; harrassing uneasiness" and called it little in use.^[10]

Timeline

• 1526 – noun, agitation, commotion, disturbance.^[2][3][11]
• c. 1529 – verb, reflexive (obsolete after 1720).^[2]
• 1530 – verb, to agitate, disquiet, harass.^[2]
• 1547 – verb, to be in agitation.^[2]
• 1548 – verb, to toil, drudge.^[2]
• 1569 – noun, harassing labour, toil (obsolete after 1616).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A state of great confusion, agitation or commotion; tumult: The market was in turmoil after the announcement.^[13][3][2]
2. Inner confusion or distress of the mind.^[3][5]
3. (obsolete, 1569–1616) Hard, harassing labour; toil.^[2][5]

Verb

1. (archaic) To throw into confusion; to agitate, disquiet or worry.^[13][3][2]
2. (dialect) To toil or drudge.^[2][3][16]

Related words

• moil
• turn

References

1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c 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 c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b 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)