Etymology

contortionist

C3O1N1T1O1R1T1I1O1N1I1S1T1

Today it means: An acrobat who is capable of twisting their body into unusual positions. Full definition →

English contortion ← Middle French contortion ← Latin contortiō
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
  3. Proto-Italic*kom
  4. Proto-Italic*kom-
  5. Latincon-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*terkʷ-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*torkʷ-éye-ti
  8. Proto-Italic*torkʷejō
  9. Proto-Italic*torkʷeō
  10. Latintorqueō
  11. Latincontorqueō
  12. Latincontortus
  13. Latincontortiō
  14. Middle Frenchcontortion
  15. Englishcontortion
  16. English todaycontortionist

From contortion + -ist.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.