torticolis

Forms

torticolis m (invariable)^[1] Rabelais wrote torticollis (1535) and tortycolly or torty colly (1542); the spelling torticolis is from 1606.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[3][4] According to the TLFi and the Petit Robert, it is borrowed from Italian torti colli, the plural of torto collo (“hypocrite, bigot”), literally “twisted neck”, because false devotees held their heads bent to show their piety.^[2][5][1]

The DHLF, Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert think this unlikely: the Italian word they consider named the wryneck, a bird, and the sense “twisted neck” is recorded in it only in the 19th century.^[3][4][6] For them the word is probably a jocular creation of Rabelais or his time, on a mock-Latin tortum collum (“twisted neck”), beside his torcoulx of the same sense; the French bird name torcol is too recent (mid-16th century) to have been the model.^[3][4][7] The Latin words are tortus (“twisted”), from torqueō (“to twist”), and collum (“neck”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rabelais first used it in 1535 as a plural noun, Torticollis, for false devotees, and in Pantagruel (1542) as an adjective, torty colly, “wry-necked”: Epistemon's cut-off head was set back on straight affin qu'il ne feust torty colly, a pointed allusion to hypocrites.^[2][3][8]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense, painful contractions of the neck, is found in 1562 in Antoine du Pinet's translation of Pliny.^[2][3][4] The older uses lasted into the 19th century: as an adjective, “wry-necked”, and as a noun for a false devotee.^[3][2] The Académie recorded both in 1694, with the figurative sense called low.^[9] Bloch and Wartburg note the sense “hypocrite” still in Jean-Jacques Rousseau.^[4]

Timeline

• 1535 – Rabelais uses the plural Torticollis for false devotees.^[2][3]
• 1542 – Torty colly “wry-necked” in Pantagruel.^[2]
• 1562 – Du Pinet uses torticollis for a painful contraction of the neck.^[2][4]
• 1606 – The spelling torticolis.^[3]
• 1694 – The Académie records it as an adjective and, figuratively, for false devotees.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stiff neck, an involuntary twisting of the neck with the head tilted and painful muscles: attraper un torticolis.^[5][2][1]
2. (by extension) Pain or stiffness from holding the neck awkwardly.^[5]
3. (obsolete) A false devotee, a hypocrite.^[2][8]

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Having one's neck twisted to one side.^[2][8][9]

Related words

• torcol
• tordre
• col
• cou
• Latin collum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard