torment (n.)

c. 1300, tormentour, "judicial torturer, official charged with executing cruel punishments," also "anyone who causes physical pain or mental distress;" from Anglo-French tormentour, Old French tormenteor "torturer," agent noun from tormenter "to torture" (see torment (v.)). Related: Tormentress (early 15c., often of Fate).

early 15c., in medicine (Chauliac), "contortion, twisting, distortion; a disorder characterized by contortion," from Old French torture "infliction of great pain; great pain, agony" (12c.) and directly from Late Latin tortura "a twisting, writhing," in Medieval Latin "pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of punishment or persuasion," also "a colic." This is from the stem of Latin torquere "to twist, turn, wind, wring, distort" (from PIE root *terkw- "to twist").

In English the meaning "infliction of severe bodily pain as a means of punishment or persuasion" is attested from 1550s. The theory behind judicial torture was that an innocent person could not be made to confess by this means, but a guilty person could.

Compare torment (n.). Older words for the deliberate, systematic infliction of physical pain (as punishment or in cruelty) included tormenterie (late 14c.), tormenting (n.) (c. 1300).

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to twist."

It forms all or part of: contort; distort; extort; extortion; nasturtium; queer; retort; thwart; torch; torment; torque (n.) "rotating force;" torsion; tort; torticollis; tortuous; torture; truss.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit tarkuh "spindle;" Latin torquere "to twist;" Old Church Slavonic traku "band, girdle;" Old High German drahsil "turner," German drechseln "to turn on a lathe;" Old Norse þvert "across," Old English þweorh "transverse, perverse, angry, cross," Gothic þwairhs "angry."