tort
/tɔɹt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.10 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
noun
Clipping of tortoiseshell (“a domestic cat, guinea pig, rabbit, or other animal whose fur has black, brown, and yellow markings; a tortie”).
British usage; Obsolete; Slang
Example Sentences
- "[…] Wrong or Iniury, is in French aptly called Tort, becauſe Iniury & wrong is wreſted or crooked, being contrary to that which is right and ſtreight. […] And Britton ſaith that Tort a la ley eſt contrarye [a wrong to the law is contrary], and as aptly for the cauſe aforeſaid is iniury in English called wrong."
- "Personal actions are ſuch vvhereby a man claims a debt, or perſonal duty, or damages in lieu thereof; and likevviſe vvhereby a man claims a ſatisfaction in damages for ſome injury done to his perſon or property. The former are ſaid to be founded on contracts, the latter upon torts or vvrongs: […] of the latter all actions for treſpaſſes, nuſances, aſſaults, defamatory vvords, and the like."
- "A tort is a legal wrong committed upon the person or property independent of contract. It may be either (1) a direct invasion of some legal right of the individual; (2) the infraction of some public duty by which special damage accrues to the individual; (3) the violation of some private obligation by which like damage accrues to the individual."
- "Then gan triumphant Trompets ſovvnd on hye, / That ſent to heuen the ecchoed report / Of their nevv ioy, and happie victory / Gainſt him, that had them long oppreſt with tort, / And faſt impriſoned in ſieged fort."
- "For no vvild beaſts ſhould do them any torte / There or abroad, ne vvould his maieſtye / Vſe them but vvell, vvith gracious clemencye, / As vvhome he knevv to him both faſt and true; […]"
- "And the firſt that came and gaue them moſt comfort was Henry Erle of Lãcaſter with yͤ wrie neck, called Tort coll [torticollis], who was brother to Thomas Erle of Lãcaſter yͭ was behedded, as ye haue heard before, who was a right vertuous & good knight as after ye ſhal here."
Etymology
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”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *terkʷ-, tort, tortum, tortus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tɔɹt/
- British English: /tɔːt/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.
Inflected Forms
torts (plural)
more tort (comparative)
most tort (superlative)
torter (comparative)
tortest (superlative)