tornus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈtɔr.nʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtɔr.nus]^[1]

Forms

tornus m (genitive tornī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “compass; turner's lathe”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, turn”).^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short and Gaffiot cite Lucretius, who speaks of colonnades seeming turned on a lathe.^[4][5] Köbler dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant a turner's lathe, as in Lucretius, Virgil, Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius, and figuratively in Propertius the poet's craft.^[2][4][5]

In Medieval Latin it meant a winch, a turnstile, a settlement of accounts, and the periodical sitting of a court, the “tourn”, and in British sources a lathe, a crossbow winch and a quern.^[6][7] It survives in Spanish and Portuguese torno and Italian tornio.^[1] Its verb tornō “to turn on a lathe” gave late Old English turnian, whence English turn, and Old French tour gave English tour about 1300.^[8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a lathe.^[4][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it.^[5][3]
• c. 550 – The Hisperica Famina uses it.^[3]
• c. 1300 – English tour is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A turner's lathe.^[2]
2. (figurative) Craft, polish (of a poet).^[5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A winch; a turnstile; a periodical court sitting.^[6][7]

Word family

• tornō

Related words

• tornātilis
• tornātor
• tornātūra
• English turn
• English tour

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com