Etymology

tort

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Today it means: A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages. Full definition →

First used late 16th c.Middle English tort ← Old French tort ← Medieval Latin tortum
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tort · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*terkʷ-“to spin; to turn”
  2. Latin · derived fromtortus“crooked; twisted”
  3. Medieval Latin · derived fromtortum“injustice, wrong”
  4. Old French · derived fromtort“misdeed, wrong”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromtort“(uncountable) wrong; (countable) an injury, a wrong”
  6. English todaytort

From Middle English tort (“(uncountable) wrong; (countable) an injury, a wrong”), from Old French tort (“misdeed, wrong”) (modern French tort (“an error, wrong; a fault”)), from Medieval Latin tortum (“injustice, wrong”), a noun use of a neuter singular participle form of Latin tortus (“crooked; twisted”), the perfect passive participle of torqueō (“to bend or twist awry, distort”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). Cognates * Galician torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong, tort”) * Italian torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) injustice, wrong”) * Norwegian Bokmål tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Norwegian Nynorsk tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Occitan tort * Old French tort (modern French tort) * Portuguese torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong”) * Spanish tuerto (“injury, offence”)

tort · adjective2

  1. Latin · derived fromtortus“crooked; twisted”
  2. Old French · derived fromtort
  3. Middle English · inherited fromtort
  4. English todaytort

From Middle English tort, torte (“contorted, crooked; twisted”), from Old French tort, torte (“crooked; twisted”), or from its etymon Latin tortus (“crooked; twisted”): see further at etymology 1.

tort · adjective3

A variant of tart.

tort · adjective4

A variant of taut.

tort · noun5

Clipping of tortoise.

tort · noun6

Clipping of tortoiseshell.

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchtort all →

-torttortfeasance

Latintortus all →

torturetortoisetorteau

Proto-Indo-European*terkʷ- all →

torchathwart

First known use, by meaning

  • from late 16th c. A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages.
  • late 14th – 18th c. An injury or wrong.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.