Etymologically
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intorqueo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪnˈtɔr.kʷe.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [inˈtɔr.kʷe.o][1]

Forms

intorqueō (present infinitive intorquēre, perfect active intorsī, supine intortum); second conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in, at”) + torqueō (“to twist”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces torqueō to Proto-Italic *torkʷ-eie- (“to twist”) and Proto-Indo-European *torkʷ-eie- (“to twist”), a causative verb, comparing Hittite tar(k)u- (“to dance”) and Sanskrit तर्कु (tarku-, “spindle”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Cistellaria, of a caterpillar that wraps itself, rolled up, in a vine leaf.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to bend back or round, to turn or spin round: Lucretius has a storm wind twisting itself in the clouds.[2] It is to twist into a spiral, as Celsus' twisted papyrus and Tibullus' twisted whip, and to wrench or sprain, as an ankle in the Bellum Hispaniense.[2][5] Cicero uses it of a speaker who twisted his chin as he spoke, and figuratively of the law twisted by word and letter.[2] It is also to hurl a missile, as Virgil's spear, and Cicero has insults hurled between brothers.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a caterpillar rolled in a leaf.[2][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a whirling wind.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a twisted chin and twisted law.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of hurling a spear.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bend back or round; to turn or spin round; to turn towards.[2][5][1]
  2. To twist into a spiral; to wind round.[2][1]
  3. To wrench, sprain; to contort the face or body; figuratively, to pervert.[2][5][1]
  4. To hurl a missile at; to hurl insults.[2][1]

Word family

  • intortio
  • intortus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de