'Torture' is Latin for 'a twisting' — from 'torquere.' Kin to 'torque,' 'contort,' and 'tortilla.'
The deliberate infliction of severe physical or mental pain, especially as punishment or to extract information.
From French 'torture,' from Late Latin 'tortūra' (a twisting, a wringing, torment), from Latin 'tortus,' past participle of 'torquēre' (to twist, to wrench, to distort), from PIE *terkʷ- (to twist). The word's core image is one of twisting — the rack, the wringing of limbs, the distortion of the body. The same root produced 'torque' (a twisting force), 'contort' (to twist together), 'distort' (to twist apart), 'extort' (to twist out of someone), and even 'torch' (originally a twisted bundle of