tormento

Forms

tormento m (plural tormentos)^[1] Houaiss records the 14th-century spelling tormeto.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tormentum (“twisted rope; siege engine; torture”), first recorded in the 13th century.^[2][3][4] The same Latin word is Galician tormento, Spanish tormento, Catalan turment, French tourment, Italian tormento and Romanian turment.^[1]

The Latin noun is formed from torqueō (“to twist”) with the suffix -mentum, from Proto-Italic *torkmentom.^[5][6][1] Its first meaning was a rope of twisted hair or fibre; it then named the torsion catapult, torture and pain.^[5][6] Nascentes explains the sense as physical suffering from the twisting of the limbs, later applied to suffering of the mind.^[4] The feminine tormenta “storm” comes separately from Late Latin tormenta, the plural of the noun.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of the muitos tormentos que lle fazian os mouros “the many torments the Moors inflicted on him”, and of a rescue “from the sea and its storms” (do mar e dos seus tormentos).^[7] The Crónica Troiana uses the word both for bodily torture and for anguish.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the word often meant judicial torture: Barbosa has dar tormento “to put to the question”, and Bluteau explains the corporal punishment given to a prisoner against whom there is half proof, with the phrase meter alguem a tormento.^[8][9] Michaelis notes that this practice lasted until the 18th century.^[10] Bluteau also gives the general sense of any outward pain or inward grief, and Morais the act of tormenting.^[9][11] The Latin sense “war machine for throwing missiles” is recorded as old military usage.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][7]
• 14th century – the spelling tormeto.^[2]
• c. 1430 – tormento in the Horto do Esposo (manuscript of 1390–1437).^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin cruciatus.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists dar tormento, judicial torture.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as the act of tormenting and as pain and anguish.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of tormenting.^[2][14]
2. Intense physical suffering inflicted on someone; torture, suplício.^[2][14]
3. Persistent pain of body or mind; anguish, affliction: A espera pelo resultado foi um tormento.^[2][14]
4. misfortune, a blow of fate.^[2][14]
5. (military, obsolete) A war machine for hurling missiles.^[2]

Word family

• atormentar
• tormentar
• tormentoso

Related words

• torcer
• tortura
• Latin tormentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tormento
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tormento
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tormento
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tormentum
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. tormento
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tormento
9. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tormento
10. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. tormento
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 468
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tormento
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tormento
14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tormento