torto

Forms

torto (feminine torta, masculine plural tortos, feminine plural tortas, metaphonic)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tortus (“twisted”), the past participle of torqueō (“to twist”), written Old Galician-Portuguese torto in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The noun “wrong, injury” continues the Latin neuter tortum, which meant “injustice” in Romance and in Medieval Latin.^[5][6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician torto, Spanish tuerto, Catalan tort, Italian torto and Romanian tort.^[5][1] Spanish, like Portuguese, also uses it for a one-eyed person.^[5][8]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *torkʷeie- and Proto-Indo-European *torkʷ-eie- (“to twist”).^[9] Wiktionary analyses this as a causative of *terkʷ- (“to turn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss gives 803 as the earliest date, from Machado, and dates the vernacular noun to the 13th century and the adjective to the 14th.^[2] The noun is common in the cantigas, in phrases such as fazer torto “to do wrong” and aver torto “to be in the wrong”.^[10] Fernão Garcia Esgaravunha writes e que gram torto vos disse, senhor “and what a great wrong I said to you, my lady”.^[11] A document of 1273 quoted by Viterbo speaks of the one who suffers the wrong (áquel que padecer o torto).^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana already uses the adjective for winding mountain passes (eran estreytos et tortos).^[10] The noun, frequent in medieval law and poetry, is now archaic.^[2][3] Bluteau (1712–1728) lists pernas tortas “crooked legs” and olhar de torto “to look askance”, and Folqman (1755) a torto e a direito.^[13][14]

Figurative senses developed from “not straight”: “unjust, wrong”, “disloyal”, “cross-eyed”.^[2][15] The sense “one-eyed” is popular in Brazil, in Rio Grande do Sul also of an animal with only one horn, and in Portugal; in Portugal torto is also informal for “drunk”.^{[15][16][17][2]}

Timeline

• 803 – earliest date Houaiss gives, from Machado.^[2]
• 1200s – first records of the noun “wrong”.^[2]
• 1273 – padecer o torto in a document quoted by Viterbo.^[12]
• 1300s – first records of the adjective “crooked”.^[2]
• 1390–1437 – torto in the Horto do Esposo.^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists pernas tortas.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses a torto e a direito with Latin per fas et nefas.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais records the noun “injury, unreason”.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not straight; crooked, bent, twisted: uma estrada torta.^[2][15][1]
2. Set at a slant; askew: O espelho está torto.^[2][15][1]
3. (figurative) Wrong, unjust.^[2][20][1]
4. (figurative) Disloyal; fond of stirring up quarrels; bad-tempered.^[2][15]
5. Cross-eyed (estrábico), squinting.^[2][15][1]
6. One-eyed, blind in one eye.^[2][17][15]
7. (Portugal, informal) Drunk.^[2][17]
8. (prosody) Of a line of verse, not keeping to the metre or caesura.^[2]

Noun

1. (archaic) A wrong, injury or offence.^[2][3][1]

Adverb

1. Badly, wrongly; rudely: responder torto.^[2][20]

Word family

• entortar

Related words

• torcer
• Latin tortus
• Spanish tuerto

Usage notes

A torto e a direito means “indiscriminately, right and left”, or “in great quantity”.^[2][20] In Brazil quebrar o torto is to eat a little while waiting for a meal, or to break one's fast.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. torto
3. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. torto
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. tortus
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8809
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. tortus
7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. tortus
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 499
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b 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. torto
11. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. torto
12. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 385
13. ^ 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. torto
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. torto
15. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. torto
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. torto
17. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9061
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. torto
19. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 789
20. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. torto