torre

torre¹ tower

Etymology tree of torre¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin turris

French tour

Italian torre

Spanish torre

From the same root · torre¹

Latin turriger ← turris

Latin turrītus ← turris

French autour ← tour

Pronunciation

• /ˈtor.re/^[1]

Forms

torre f (plural torri)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the tower is inherited from Latin turris (“tower”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is generally taken as a loan from Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis), a form Hesychius records beside the usual τύρσις (túrsis).^[2][3][5][1] The Oscan form is tiurrí.^[5][6] The Greek word was itself borrowed, perhaps from a language of Asia Minor;^[2][3][7] Nocentini compares the Anatolian place name ⟨Týrra⟩ or ⟨Týrsa⟩, thought to underlie Ancient Greek Τυρσηνός (Tursēnós), the Greek name of the Etruscans, and so Italian tirreno and etrusco.^[2][3][7] Wiktionary calls it probably a Mediterranean substrate word.^[1]

The same Latin word is French tour, Occitan torre, Catalan torre, Spanish torre, Portuguese torre and Sardinian turre.^[3][8] In Catalan and Aragonese the word also means a country house.^[8][6] The German word Turm comes, through Middle High German torn, from the French word.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dante (1300–1313), for a tall building, usually square, built with several floors for the defence of cities, castles and palaces; variant forms are older, from the 13th century.^[2] GRADIT dates it to 1304–1308.^[4] Among the early texts, the Elegia giudeo-italiana tells of torri e grandi palaza laid waste, and Uguccione da Lodi lists castelo né roca, grand palasio né tor among the things that can no longer help him.^[9] In Dante a giant shakes himself more violently than any earthquake che scotesse una torre così forte, “that shook a tower so strong”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Dante's sta come torre ferma, che non crolla, “stand like a firm tower, whose top never falls”, made the tower a figure of steadfastness.^[10][7] Its derivatives torreggiare (Dante, Fazio degli Uberti) and torrione, a large tower in a city wall (before 1363, Villani), are early;^[2] Rohlfs took the augmentative -ione of torrione for a Spanish model, but the early date speaks against it.^[2]

The word also named the siege tower (Machiavelli, 16th century) and the tower carried on war elephants (1618).^[6] In chess the torre (1879) replaced the older rocco, from Arabic.^[6][2] The same year it was used for any tower-shaped structure; later came the armoured turret of warships (1937) and the tower of chemical and physical plants (1956).^[2]

Torre di Babele, a great confusion, comes from the biblical account of the confusion of tongues and is recorded in 1838.^[2][11] Torre d'avorio goes back to turris eburnea of the litany of the Virgin, but was put into circulation by Sainte-Beuve, who wrote of Alfred de Vigny in 1837 comme en sa tour d'ivoire;^[2][11] D'Annunzio used it in 1892 for a woman of unassailable virtue.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 13th century – Variant forms are recorded.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses torre.^[2]
• Before 1363 – Torrione is recorded in Villani.^[2]
• 1618 – It is used for the tower on war elephants.^[6]
• 1837 – Sainte-Beuve writes of a tour d'ivoire.^[2]
• 1838 – Torre di Babele is recorded.^[11]
• 1879 – It names the rook in chess.^[2][6]
• 1937 – It names the armoured turret of a warship.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tower: a tall building of square, polygonal or round plan, standing alone or part of a larger building, used for defence, as a lookout, or to hold bells or a clock: Dalla torre del castello si vedeva tutta la valle.^[4][10][12]
2. A tall structure or apparatus for technical or scientific work: torre di controllo, control tower, torre di raffreddamento, cooling tower.^[4][12][13]
3. A tower block, skyscraper.^[10]
4. (heraldry) The figure of a battlemented tower.^[4]
5. (military, nautical) The armoured turret of a warship, housing guns or the command.^[4][14][13]
6. (history) A siege tower; the tower carried on the back of a war elephant.^[4][10][14]
7. (mountaineering) An isolated rock peak with steep sides.^[4][14][15]
8. (chess) The rook.^[14][15][1]
9. (sports) In football, a forward who heads the ball down to a teammate; in basketball, a team's tallest player.^[4][14]

Word family

• torrione
• torretta
• torreggiare
• torrazzo
• torraiolo
• torracchione
• torriere
• torricella

torre² to take away

Etymology tree of torre²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin tollō

Italian togliere

Italian torre

From the same root · torre²

Latin extollō ← tollō

Latin sustollō ← tollō

Pronunciation

• /ˈtɔr.re/^[1]

Forms

torre (first-person singular present tòlgo, first-person singular past historic tòlsi, past participle tòlto, first-person singular imperfect togliévo, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to take away” is inherited from Latin tollere (“to lift; to take away”), through a form Old Italian *tolre in which the l was assimilated to the r.^[2][11][1] It is thus a contracted, popular or poetic form of togliere, which continues the same Latin verb.^[7][2][1] Other Romance outcomes of the infinitive are Old French toldre, Old Occitan toldre and Catalan tolre.^[16]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *tolnō, a nasal present of Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to bear, carry”).^[17][1] Its cognates include Gothic 𐌸𐌿𐌻𐌰𐌽 (þulan, “to endure”) and Old English þolian (“to endure”), the source of English thole.^[17][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Lenten sermons of Giordano da Pisa, 1305–1306, with the sense of togliere, “to take away”.^[2] DEI finds the full form tollere in Guittone in the 13th century, and torre used transitively, intransitively and reflexively in Dante.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The contracted form belonged to popular speech and to poetry.^[7] Today GRADIT marks it obsolete and literary, and the TLIO lists it under togliere.^[4][18]

Timeline

• 13th century – Guittone uses tollere.^[11]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses torre.^[2]
• 14th century – Dante uses torre.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic, poetic) To take away, remove; a form of togliere.^[4][7][1]