estorcer

Forms

estorcer (first-person singular present estorzo, first-person singular preterite estorcí, past participle estorcido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish estorcer, inherited from Vulgar Latin *extorcere, from Latin extorquēre (“to twist out, wrench away”).^[2][1][3] Like torcer, it rests on a Vulgar Latin infinitive with /k/ for the classical /kʷ/ of torquēre.^[4][1] Old Spanish also had the form estrecer.^[3][5]

The same Latin verb is Old Catalan estorcer, Old Occitan estorcer, Old French estordre, Italian storcere and Romanian stoarce.^[4][3] estorcer means “to twist hard, writhe”, but in its oldest use also “to save oneself”.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250) uses it transitively, of a poison: nol puede ninguna cosa estorcer dela muert “nothing can save him from death”.^[8] Corominas's earliest examples are in the Libro de Alexandre, where it means “to get free from a danger”.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Corominas lists it in the Alexandre, the Calila, Juan Ruiz, the Vida de San Ildefonso and the Danza de la Muerte; he holds that it is always intransitive, “to escape”, not “to avoid”, as Cejador and María Rosa Lida read it.^[4] The Alfonsine prose has both uses, transitive “to free someone from a danger” and reflexive or intransitive “to escape”.^[8]

Autoridades (1732) already called it antiquated, quoting the Partidas: Pero si despues estorciere de aquel peligro, debese confessar despues al Clérigo “but if he afterwards escapes from that danger, he must then confess to the priest”.^[10] The DLE keeps it as a disused word.^[2] In the Canaries estorcer survives in the unrelated sense of turning something aside, and also of twisting a limb.^[11][12]

Timeline

• c. 1230–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre, known from later copies, uses estorcer “to escape”.^[4]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it transitively, “to save from death”.^[8]
• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna has the verb.^[4]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses it in the Libro de buen amor.^[4]
• 1732 – Autoridades marks it as antiquated.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as transitive and antiquated, also found as intransitive.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete) To free someone from a danger or difficulty; intransitive, to escape from it.^[2][1][14]
2. (Canary Islands) To turn something aside from its course; to twist a limb.^[11][12]

Related words

• torcer
• retorcer
• extorsión
• Latin extorqueō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. estorcer
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. extorquēre
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 553
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2606
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1457
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estorcer
8. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. estorcer
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. estorcer
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 643
11. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. estorcer
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. estorcer
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 396
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estorcer