Where does “torture” come from?
Torture comes from Middle English torture, from Old French torture, from Late Latin tortura, ultimately from Latin torquere meaning "to twist."
torture (English): intentional causing of somebody's experiencing...
Definitions
- intentional causing of somebody's experiencing...
Ancestry of “torture”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | torture | — |
| 2 | Old French | torture | — |
| 3 | Latin | tortūra | a twisting, wreathing |
| 4 | Latin | tortus | twisted, crooked; spun, whirled; bent, distorted |
| 5 | Latin | -tus | Forms the past participle of verbs; Forms... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -tus | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tus | Derives action nouns from verb roots |
Words derived from “torture”