*SET-U

Chambers (1908)

Torsion

Read this edition’s complete source entry.

Englishe-38700-5339Historical source · not a reviewed *SET-U verdictRead the source ↗

This edition’s origin note

[L. torsio—torquēre, tortum, to twist.]

Original source wording, not an independently verified *SET-U conclusion.

The complete extracted entry

e-38700-5339

Historical source text, not a reviewed *SET-U analysis. Claims and terminology belong to this edition.

Torsion, tor′shun, n. act of twisting or turning a body: the force with which a thread or wire tends to return when twisted, the kind of strain produced in a bar or wire when one end is kept fixed and the other is rotated about the axis: (surg.) a method of common application for the purpose of checking arterial hæmorrhage in certain cases, by twisting the cut end of the artery.—n. Torsibil′ity.—adj. Tor′sional, pertaining to, or resulting from, torsion.—n. Tor′sion-bal′ance, an instrument for measuring very minute forces by a delicate horizontal bar or needle, suspended by a very fine thread or wire.—adj. Tor′sive, twisted spirally. [L. torsio—torquēre, tortum, to twist.]

Source locator ebook:38700;section:dictionary;paragraph:5358;continuation-paragraphs:0;html-characters:2349222-2350202

Where interpretation must slow down

  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
  • Historical text may contain offensive, obsolete or inaccurate language and classifications.
  • Public-domain determination applies to the United States; other jurisdictions require separate confirmation.
  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

An old root, gloss or concordance number does not determine the meaning of every later use. A word’s origin and its modern meaning are different questions.

This page does not invent a manuscript attestation, a sound-change sequence, a modern scholarly verdict or a complete ancestor tree. Missing detail is a limit of this source record, not necessarily a limit of scholarship.

Find other records with this spelling →

Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

The full extracted entry is rendered as plain text. Formatting and navigation are added by *SET-U; source wording is not silently rewritten as new analysis.

Coverage: the complete A–Z main-entry clusters and dictionary Addenda. Derivative words remain within their original entry clusters. Non-dictionary appendices and standalone illustrations are excluded.

Original entry or artifact ↗Source edition and credits ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source audit fields
Source locator
ebook:38700;section:dictionary;paragraph:5358;continuation-paragraphs:0;html-characters:2349222-2350202
Source record SHA-256
d05e23c58ec9b103ffa6e61f74dc39e8da287ec5b276dcb6a42602d0a0b57873
Records SHA-256
fe553f4cc08e11f2f222d5bd4706ae9585f8951c8374a3edc0fcc03264dbbea9
Published snapshot
00f489ccce5cccc78b796c10de36f4f0d18709073434ccf9285eb201d4ac39ca
Acquired
2026-11-05T09:16:04.758Z · acquisition date, not first attestation
Parser
chambers-1908-1
  • Source artifact ↗ · 3,407,997 bytes555d2991c0d7cc611a61c79935db172efe6bb5becb074253788d90dafd0b6b08
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac
  • Source artifact ↗ · 3,773,892 bytes912196a924c239e3ccc550bbb1f8515ce77bbd271ebf777b27fc468174ac32f8
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac
  • Source artifact ↗ · 2,804,092 bytes4a647fbb3ce598efbe36554cdc02b070b3f5edf5ba2e41fcd36328f18a26c4e8
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac
  • Source artifact ↗ · 4,392,053 bytes222c6725b7618cc03250863a64cce04c859c3378caa03b347376611c0668b33d
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac