tormentum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tormentum.

Noun

tormentum (plural tormenta)

1. (historical) An ancient engine for hurling missiles.

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *torkmentom. Related to torqueō (“twist, bend, wind”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [tɔrˈmɛn.tũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [torˈmɛn.tum]

Noun

tormentum n (genitive tormentī); second declension

1. an engine for hurling missiles; a shot or missile thrown by this, artillery
2. a (twisted) cord or rope
3. an instrument of torture
4. torture, anguish, pain, torment
   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca Minor, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 47.4:

     At illī, quibus nōn tantum cōram dominīs, sed cum ipsīs erat sermō — quōrum os nōn cōnsuēbātur — parātī erant prō dominō porrigere cervīcem, perīculum imminēns in caput suum āvertere; in convīviīs loquēbantur, sed in tormentīs tacēbant.

     But those [slaves] for whom not only in-person to [their] masters but with themselves was conversation [permitted] — whose mouth was not stitched shut — ready they were on behalf of the master to offer the neck, an impending danger onto their own head to turn; at dinner parties they were speaking, but in tortures they were silent.
     (In other words, Seneca makes the extraordinary claim that slaves who are treated humanely will sacrifice themselves and refuse to testify under torture. See, e.g.: Pythias (Roman).)

5. a clothes press, mangle
6. (New Latin) gun, cannon

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	tormentum	tormenta
genitive	tormentī	tormentōrum
dative	tormentō	tormentīs
accusative	tormentum	tormenta
ablative	tormentō	tormentīs
vocative	tormentum	tormenta

Derived terms

• tormentuōsus

Related terms

• tormina
• torminālis
• torminōsus
• torqueō

Descendants

• Catalan: turment
• Dalmatian: tormiant
• English: torment
• French: tourment, tourmente
• Friulian: torment
• Galician: tormento
• Italian: tormento, tormenta
• Neapolitan: turmiento
• Portuguese: tormento, tormenta
• Romanian: turment
• Sardinian: tormentu, tromentu, trumentu, turmentu
• Spanish: tormento, tormenta

References

• “tormentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tormentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "tormentum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “tormentum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to threaten some one with death, crucifixion, torture, war: minitari (minari) alicui mortem, crucem et tormenta, bellum
    
  • to have a person tortured: alicui admovere tormenta
    
  • to have a person tortured: quaerere tormentis de aliquo
    
  • the pains of torture: cruciatūs tormentorum
    
  • to rain missiles on a town, bombard it: oppidum tormentis verberare
    
• “tormentum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “tormentum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin