Etymograph

English

tornillo

Tornillo comes from Spanish tornillo ‘screw’, from torno ‘lathe’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, bore, twist’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-1‘to rub, bore, twist’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tórh₁nos1reconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτόρνος2‘a lathe’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtornus2‘a turner's wheel, lathe’
  5. Spanishc. 1500–presenttorno2‘lathe’
  6. Spanishc. 1500–presenttornillo3‘screw’
  7. Englishtodaytornillo3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τόρνος
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Spanish tornillo
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English tornillo

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τόρνος‘to rub, bore, twist’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tórh₁nosWiktionary, Ancient Greek τόρνοςreconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτόρνοςWiktionary, Spanish tornillo‘a lathe’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtornusWiktionary, Spanish tornillo‘a turner's wheel, lathe’
  5. Spanishc. 1500–presenttornoWiktionary, Spanish tornillo‘lathe’
  6. Spanishc. 1500–presenttornilloWiktionary, English tornillo‘screw’
  7. EnglishtodaytornilloWiktionary, English tornillo

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, bore, twist’

throw, thread, tragic, threshold, trout, detrimental, tyrone, detriment, attrition, thrash, overturn, triage, trite, termite, tribulation, detritus, truant, thresher, upturn, tyro, thresh, derma, 35 more

through Ancient Greek τόρνος ‘a lathe’

return, turner, 7 more

through Latin tornus ‘a turner's wheel, lathe’

turn, tournament, detour, tourney, tourniquet, 9 more

Today it means

noun A small tree of species Prosopis pubescens, native to Mexico and parts of the United States, that has spirally twisted pods.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tornillo”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Ancient Greek τόρνος, Spanish tornillo. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- / tornillo

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