tor
nounUK /tɔː/ · US /toɹ/
Etymology
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. Cognate with Cornish tor, Scottish Gaelic tòrr, Welsh twr, Irish tor, French tor, and Romansh tor/tur/tuor; the first four are Celtic (from Latin turris), the last two directly from Latin turris (from Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis) and τύρσις (túrsis)). It is not clear whether the Celtic forms were borrowed from Old English or vice versa. Doublet of tourelle, tower, and turret.
Geography, Geology, Natural sciences A craggy outcrop of rock on the summit of a hill, created by the erosion and weathering of rock.
- Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling range of dreary moors, unbroken by tor or tree, […]1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 183:
- The moon was low upon the right, and the jagged pinnacle of a granite tor stood up against the lower curve of its silver disc.1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Second Report of Dr. Watson”, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902, →OCLC, page 207:
A hill with such rock formation.
South-West England
- She had slipped the letters into her pocket next to the packet of antique documents and had taken an umbrella—as the sky was ominous out over the distant tors—and strolled around the manor house and down the road toward the village.2008, Lydia Joyce, Shadows of the Night, Signet Eclipse, →ISBN, page 242:
- Derived terms
- torlike, Torquay