Torso

How to spell torso

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce torso

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does torso mean?

1. nounThe trunk of the human body, excluding the head, arms, and legs.

Torso in a sentence

• The trainer recommended exercises that strengthen the torso and lower back.

• The tailor measured around the torso to fit the jacket properly.

Where does torso come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The word comes straight from Italian torso, which meant the stalk or stump of a plant and, by extension, the trunk of a statue with the head and limbs broken away. The Italian word descends from Vulgar Latin tursus, an alteration of Latin thyrsus, itself borrowed from the Greek thursos, the name for a stalk or a wand wreathed in ivy that was carried in festivals dedicated to the god Dionysus. The leap in meaning makes sense: a leafy stalk and a limbless human trunk are both the central, bare core left when everything growing off it is removed. English picked the word up in the 1700s through the language of artists and sculptors, who used it for the headless and armless classical statues prized in studios and collections. Because it arrived ready-made from Italian, the spelling stayed simple and phonetic, with no silent letters to trip a writer up.

How the word is built

• torso (whole word from Italian torso: stalk, stump, trunk of the body)