tormentum

Forms

tormentum n (genitive tormentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin torqueō (“to twist”) + -mentum, from ⟨*torkʷ-mn̥-to-⟩: a thing twisted, or a device worked by twisting.^[2][3][4][1] De Vaan derives torqueō from Proto-Italic *torkʷ-eie- (“to twist”), a causative Proto-Indo-European *torkʷ-eie- (“to twist”), cognate with Sanskrit तर्कु (tarku-, “spindle”) and Tocharian B tärk- (“to turn”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has tormentō nōn retinērī potuit ferreō, “he could not have been held back by an iron cable”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Tormentum is first “a rope, cable” of twisted fibres.^[2][1] It is the general word for catapults, ballistas and other war machines worked by twisted cords, and for the missiles they throw.^[2][4][1] It is torture as a means of judicial inquiry or punishment, and the instruments of torture, and so any “acute pain, torment, agony” of body or mind (Ovid: lībera tormentō pars mihi nē qua vacet, “so that no part of me should be free of torment”).^[2][1] Wiktionary also records “a clothes press”.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “instrument of torture, rack, engine for hurling missiles”,^[6] and in New Latin it is “a gun, cannon”.^[1] English torment comes from it, through Old French, about 1300.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: tormentō … ferreō.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: tormenta tēlōrum, “engines for missiles”.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid: lībera tormentō pars.^[2][5]
• c. 1300 – English torment.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rope, cable (of twisted fibre).^[2][1]
2. A war engine for hurling missiles, catapult; its missile.^[2][4][1][6]
3. torture; an instrument of torture, the rack.^[2][1][6]
4. torment, anguish, agony.^[2][1]
5. A clothes press.^[1]
6. (New Latin) A gun, cannon.^[1]

Word family

• tormentuosus

Related words

• tormina
• torminālis
• torminōsus
• torqueō
• English torment

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com