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 BCEτύρσις1as τύρρις‘tower’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEturris2‘tower, especially a military tower for siege, advanced to the walls on wheels’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150torr3‘a high rock, lofty hill, tower’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tor3
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1855tor3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin turris
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English torr
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English tor
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!: Or: “Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling…”.

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτύρσιςWiktionary, Latin turrisas τύρρις‘tower’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEturrisWiktionary, Old English torr‘tower, especially a military tower for siege, advanced to the walls on wheels’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150torrWiktionary, English tor‘a high rock, lofty hill, tower’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500torWiktionary, English tor
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1855torWiktionary, English tor. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tor”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin turris, Old English torr. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek τύρσις / tor

Shirt and support for this word