To turn is a basic...
Illustration
"To turn" is a basic metaphor for the human condition.
In Dictionary of Word Origins we find:
"This word, though early in English is not Teutonic but Romance. The noun is via OFr. tourn, torn, from L. tornus, from Gr. tornos, a turning-lathe. The verb appeared in English by the 7th c. OE tyrnan and turnian from L. tornare, to turn. We often speak of twisting and turning; the ideas are related, so are the Latin words: the root is tor- ..."
"The N.E.D. lists forty-one separate meanings of the noun turn; and eighty major meanings (some with twenty-five or twenty-six subdivisions) of the verb. They all spin from the original sense of rotary movement."*
*Joseph T. Shipley, Dictionary of Word Origins, (New York: Philosophical Library, MCMXLV), p. 366.
In Dictionary of Word Origins we find:
"This word, though early in English is not Teutonic but Romance. The noun is via OFr. tourn, torn, from L. tornus, from Gr. tornos, a turning-lathe. The verb appeared in English by the 7th c. OE tyrnan and turnian from L. tornare, to turn. We often speak of twisting and turning; the ideas are related, so are the Latin words: the root is tor- ..."
"The N.E.D. lists forty-one separate meanings of the noun turn; and eighty major meanings (some with twenty-five or twenty-six subdivisions) of the verb. They all spin from the original sense of rotary movement."*
*Joseph T. Shipley, Dictionary of Word Origins, (New York: Philosophical Library, MCMXLV), p. 366.
