tortor

Forms

tortor m (genitive tortōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin torqueō (“to twist; to torture”) + -tor.^[2][3] De Vaan traces torqueō to Proto-Italic *torkʷ-eje- (“to twist”) and the causative Proto-Indo-European *torkʷ-eye- (“to twist”).^[4] Wiktionary derives it instead from tortūra.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OLD's earliest quotation Cicero describes a time when the torturer and the instruments of torture themselves were worn out.^[2][5] Köbler dates it from Horace.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a torturer or executioner, in Cicero, Horace, Seneca and Juvenal.^[3][2] Suetonius reports the saying that Caesar was indeed Apollo, but Apollo the Tormentor, a title under which the god was worshipped in one part of Rome.^[2] Lucan has the Balearic whirler of the sling, and Fronto calls teachers of logic contortionists who bend a pupil like a fir tree.^[2] Church Latin glosses it tormentor, torturer.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a torturer.^[2][3][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it.^[3][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of Apollo the Tormentor.^[2][5]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto of teachers of logic.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A torturer, tormentor, executioner.^[2][3][1][6]
2. A title of Apollo at Rome.^[2]
3. One who whirls a sling.^[2][3]
4. Figuratively, one who bends or twists.^[2]

Related words

• torqueō
• tormentum
• tortūra

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson