tordre

Forms

tordre^[1] Old French tortre and tuerdre; the form tordre dates from about 1160 or 1180.^[2][3][4] The old past participle tors, torte survives only in a few phrases; the modern tordu is recorded from 1690.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French tortre, inherited from Vulgar Latin *torceō, an alteration of Classical torqueō (“to turn, to twist”).^[4][2][5][6] Littré explains the French form by a stress on the stem of the infinitive.^[7] The Latin verb also meant “to torture, to torment” and “to brandish”; its origin is unclear, but Rey and Littré compare it with Ancient Greek τρέπω (trépō, “to turn”).^[2][7]

Cognate with Italian torcere, Catalan tòrcer, Spanish torcer, Portuguese torcer and Romanian toarce (“to spin”).^[8][9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as the present participle tortant “bending” in Philippe de Thaon's Comput (1119).^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense, “to subject to a twisting”, has lasted, but some uses lived only in Old French, such as “to torment” (about 1200), or lasted only to the classical period, such as “to press oil seeds” (14th century, in the north) and “to turn”.^[2][4] From the 12th century it was used of the limbs, first to express a feeling (about 1130, tuerdre ses poinz), then concretely, and in tordre le cou à qqn “to kill” (13th century).^[2] The technical use for making thread and rope dates from 1690.^[2][3]

Its idea of distortion was applied to the face (1532, Rabelais) and, figuratively, to the meaning of a text (before 1564, Calvin).^[4][2] Se tordre “to bend in every direction” (before 1778) came to be used of a body twisted by pain or emotion, and especially of laughter (se tordre, 1847), whence the adjective tordant “very funny” (1896).^[2][4] The participle tordu is used figuratively, as of the mind, in the 20th century, and in un coup tordu.^[2]

Timeline

• 1119 – The participle tortant appears in Philippe de Thaon.^[4]
• c. 1130 – Tuerdre ses poinz “to wring one's hands”.^[2]
• c. 1180 – Tordre “to bend out of shape”, in Jehan le Nevelon.^[4]
• c. 1225 – Gautier de Coinci writes jambe torte.^[4]
• 1532 – Rabelais uses it for twisting the mouth.^[4]
• Before 1564 – Calvin uses it for distorting a meaning.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière records tordu and the sense for making thread.^[4][2]
• 1847 – Michelet uses se tordre for laughing.^[4]
• 1896 – Tordant “very funny” appears.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To twist, to wind into a spiral; to wring (laundry); to twist strands into a single thread or rope.^[9][4][1]
2. To twist a limb or part of the body;^[9][2][1] tordre le cou à, to wring the neck of, to kill.^[9][2][1]
3. To bend something out of shape: La chute a tordu la roue du vélo.^[4][10]
4. To distort the features of the face.^[4][2]
5. (figurative) To twist the meaning of a text.^[4][2]
6. (reflexive) se tordre: to writhe with pain;^[2][1] se tordre de rire, to double up with laughter.^[2][1]

Word family

• tord-boyaux
• détordre
• torcol
• tortu

Related words

• contorsion
• distordre
• entorse
• extorquer
• extorsion
• rétorquer
• retors
• torche
• tordu
• tors
• torsion
• Latin torqueō

Usage notes

The old participle survives in du fil tors and des jambes torses.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 84a
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)