Etymograph

English

tor

Tor comes from Old English torr ‘a high rock, lofty hill, tower’, and goes back to Ancient Greek τύρσις.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτύρσιςas τύρρις‘tower’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEturris‘tower, especially a military tower for siege, advanced to the walls on wheels’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150torr‘a high rock, lofty hill, tower’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tor
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1855same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτύρσιςas τύρρις‘tower’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEturris‘tower, especially a military tower for siege, advanced to the walls on wheels’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150torr‘a high rock, lofty hill, tower’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tor
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1855same form

Earliest quotation: 1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!: Or: “Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling…”

The story

From Middle English tor, torr-, from Old English torr, tor (‘a high rock, lofty hill, tower’), possibly from Proto-Celtic, compare Old Welsh *tor (‘hill’); ultimately from Latin turris (‘tower’), from Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis), τύρσις (túrsis, “tower”), of non-Indo-European origin. It is not clear whether the Celtic forms were borrowed from Old English or vice versa.

Linked words

through Latin turris ‘tower, especially a military tower for siege,…’

tower, turret, 3 more

through Old English torr ‘a high rock, lofty hill, tower’

torr

through Middle English tor

tore

Today it means

noun A craggy outcrop of rock on the summit of a hill, created by the erosion and weathering of rock.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek τύρσις / tor

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