Where does “tortuous” come from?
Tortuous comes from Middle English tortuose, from Old French tortuos, from Latin tortuosus, meaning twisted or winding, derived from tortus, the past participle of torquere, meaning to twist.
tortuous (English): Twisted; having many turns; convoluted; Oblique;...
Definitions
- Twisted; having many turns; convoluted; Oblique;...
Ancestry of “tortuous”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | tortuous | — |
| 2 | Latin | tortuōsus | — |
| 3 | Latin | tortus | twisted, crooked; spun, whirled; bent, distorted |
| 4 | Latin | -tus | Forms the past participle of verbs; Forms... |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -tus | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -tus | Derives action nouns from verb roots |
Words derived from “tortuous”