英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

torn [torn 词源字典]: past participle of tear (v.); from Old English getoren.[torn etymology, torn origin, 英语词源]
tornado (n.): 1550s, ternado, navigator's word for violent windy thunderstorm in the tropical Atlantic, probably a mangled borrowing from Spanish tronada "thunderstorm," from tronar "to thunder," from Latin tonare "to thunder" (see thunder (n.)). Also in 17c. spelled tornatho, tornathe, turnado; modern spelling by 1620s. Metathesis of -o- and -r- in modern spelling influenced by Spanish tornar "to twist, turn," from Latin tornare "to turn." Meaning "extremely violent whirlwind" is first found 1620s; specifically "destructive rotary funnel cloud" (especially in the U.S. Midwest) from 1849. Related: Tornadic.
toro (n.): "bull," 1650s, from Spanish toro "bull," from Latin taurus (see steer (n.)).
Toronto: city in Ontario, Canada, founded 1793 as York, renamed 1834 for a native village that appears on a 1656 map as Tarantou, from an Iroquoian source, original form and sense unknown; perhaps taron-to-hen "wood in the water," or Huron deondo "meeting place."
torpedo (n.): 1520s, "electric ray" (flat fish that produces an electric charge to stun prey or for defense), from Latin torpedo "electric ray," originally "numbness, sluggishness" (the fish so called from the effect of being jolted by the ray's electric discharges), from torpere "be numb" (see torpor).
Torpedo. A fish which while alive, if touched even with a long stick, benumbs the hand that so touches it, but when dead is eaten safely. [Johnson]
The sense of "explosive device used to blow up enemy ships" is first recorded 1776, as a floating mine; the self-propelled version is from c. 1900. Related: Torpedic.
torpedo (v.): "destroy or sink (a ship) by a torpedo," 1874, from torpedo (n.). Also used late 19c. of blowing open oil wells. Figurative sense attested from 1895. Related: Torpedoed; torpedoing.
torpid (adj.): 1610s, "benumbed, without feeling or power," from Latin torpidus "benumbed, stupefied," from torpere "be numb or stiff" (see torpor). Figurative sense of "sluggish, dull, apathetic" is from 1650s. Related: Torpidly; torpidness.
torpidity (n.): 1610s; see torpid + -ity.
torpor (n.): "lethargy, listlessness," c. 1600, from Latin torpor "numbness, sluggishness," from torpere "be numb, be inactive, be dull," from PIE root *ster- (1) "stiff, rigid, firm, strong" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic trupeti, Lithuanian tirpstu "to become rigid;" Greek stereos "solid;" Old English steorfan "to die;" see stereo-).
torque (n.): "rotating force," 1882, from Latin torquere "to twist, turn, turn about, twist awry, distort, torture," from PIE *torkw-eyo-, causative of *terkw- "to twist" (see thwart (adv.)). The word also is used (since 1834) by antiquarians and others as a term for the twisted metal necklace worn anciently by Gauls, Britons, Germans, etc., from Latin torques "collar of twisted metal," from torquere. Earlier it had been called in English torques (1690s). Torque-wrench is from 1941.
torque (v.): 1570s (implied in torqued "twisted"), from torque (n.).
torr (n.): unit of pressure, 1949, named for Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647), inventor of the barometer.
torrent (n.): "rapid stream," c. 1600, from Middle French torrent (16c.) and directly from Latin torrentem (nominative torrens) "rushing, roaring" (of streams), also "a rushing stream," originally as an adjective "roaring, boiling, burning, parching, hot, inflamed," present participle of torrere "to parch" (see terrain). Extension to any onrush (of words, feelings, etc.) first recorded 1640s.
torrential (adj.): 1849; see torrent + -ial. Perhaps by influence of French torrentiel. Related: Torrentially.
torrid (adj.): 1580s, in torrid zone "region of the earth between the tropics," from Medieval Latin torrida zona, from fem. of torridus "dried with heat, scorching hot," from torrere "to parch," from PIE root *ters- "to dry" (see terrain). Sense of "very hot" is first attested 1610s. Figurative sense from 1630s.
torsion (n.): early 15c., "wringing pain in the bowels," from Old French torsion "colic" (early 14c.), from Late Latin torsionem (nominative torsio) "a wringing or gripping," from Latin tortionem (nominative tortio) "torture, torment," noun of action from past participle stem of torquere "to twist, distort, torture" (see torque (n.)). Meaning "act or effect of twisting as by opposing forces" is first recorded 1540s.
torso (n.): 1797, from Italian torso "trunk of a statue," originally "stalk, stump," from Vulgar Latin *tursus, from Latin thyrsus "stalk, stem," from Greek thyrsos (see thyrsus).
tort (n.): mid-13c., "injury, wrong," from Old French tort "wrong, injustice, crime" (11c.), from Medieval Latin tortum "injustice," noun use of neuter of tortus "wrung, twisted," past participle of Latin torquere "turn, turn awry, twist, wring, distort" (see torque (n.)). Legal sense of "breach of a duty, whereby someone acquires a right of action for damages" is first recorded 1580s.
torte (n.): "sweet cake, tart," 1748, from German Torte; earlier sense of "round cake, round bread" (1550s) is from Middle French torte; both are from Late Latin torta "flat cake," also "round loaf of bread" (also source of Italian torte, Spanish torta), probably related to tart (n.1). Not considered to be from the source of tort.
tortellini (n.): 1937, from Italian, plural of tortellino, diminutive of tortello "cake, fritter," itself a diminutive of torta (see torte).