| 释义 |
▪ I. tor, n.|tɔː(r)|
Forms: 1, 6– torr, 4–7 torre, 4– tor.
[Occurs as an element in topographical names in early West Saxon charters; also, as a local term for a topographical feature from OE. onward. Generally held to be Celtic; but, though frequent in place-names in Cornwall, Devon, etc., not recorded as a ‘common noun’ in Cornish or Breton. In Welsh the nearest word is app. tẁr (= tur), OW. twrr ‘heap, pile’ (rare in place-names, but cf. Mynydd Twrr, old name of Holyhead Mountain, Rhŷs). Prob. cognate with Gaelic tòrr ‘hill of an abrupt or conical form, lofty hill, eminence, mound, grave, heap of ruins’ (Macleod and Dewar), primarily ‘heap, pile’, cf. tòrr vb. ‘to heap up, pile up, bury’, Ir. torraim ‘I heap up’, and the deriv. Gael. torran ‘little hill, knoll, hillock’, Ir. torrán ‘heap, pile, hillock’. Cf. also quot. 1905.]
1. a. A high rock; a pile of rocks, gen. on the top of a hill; a rocky peak; a hill. In proper names of eminences or rocks in Cornwall, Devon, Peak of Derbyshire; also sporadically in some other counties, e.g. Glastonbury Tor, in Somerset.
847Grant by K. æthelwulf in Birch Cart. Sax. II. 34 ærest on merce cumb [in Dorset], ðonne on grenan pytt, ðonne on ðone torr æt merce cumbes æwielme. a1000Boeth. Metr. v. 17 Oð him [a brook] oninnan felð muntes mæᵹenstan..atrendlod of ðæm torre [in Prose vi, Micel stan wealwiende of þam heohan munte]. a1400–50Alexander 4863 So hedous & so hoge hillis þam beforn, Cloȝes at was cloude he [cloud-high] clynterand torres, Rochis & rogh stanes, rokkis vnfaire. 1539Pollard in Lett. Suppress. Monast. (Camden) 261 The late abbott of Glastonberye..was drawyn thorowe the towne apon a hurdyll to the hyll callyd the Torre, wheare he was putto execucion. a1552Leland Itin. (1711) II. 38 Camallate, sumtyme a famose Toun or Castelle, apon a very Torre or Hille, wunderfully enstrengthenid of nature. 1610Norden Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728) 38 Mount St. Michaells, a steepe and most craggie torr. c1630Risdon Surv. Devon (1810) 6 A chain of hills..whose tops and torrs are in the winter often covered with a white cap. 1681Cotton Wond. Peake (1702) 42 Tor in that Country-Jargons uncouth sense, Expressing any Craggy Eminence. 1806Gough Camden's Brit. II. 423/2 Matlock great Torr is 140 yards perpendicular. 1894Baring-Gould Kitty Alone II. 160 Tors rise to the height of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. 1905Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. Torr, In E. Cornw. ‘Tor’ means a pile of rocks, and is never used for a hill, or the top of a hill, unless the hill or top is so very rocky that the whole may be considered one pile of rocks. 1913Let. to Editor, A high hill in Haslingden, Lancashire, is simply called ‘The Tor’.
b. Locally in Scotland, applied to an artificial mound; a burial mound.
1794Buchanan Def. Scott. Highl. 142 What are the Torrs..but burrying hills? 1845Statist. Acc. Scot. VI. 887 Its name [Torrance] was taken from an artificial mound of earth, still known by the name of the Tor, which is situated a quarter of a mile from the present house of Torrance.
†2. ? A heavy mass of cloud. Obs.
(But the sense ‘rock mass’ seems also possible.)
13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 874 A hue fro heuen I herde þoo, Lyk flodez fele laden, runnen on resse, & as þunder þrowez in torrez blo. Ibid. B. 951 Torres, Þat þe þik þunder þrast þirled hem ofte.
3. attrib. tor grass, a perennial grass, Brachypodium pinnatum; cf. tore n.3; tor ouzel, local name of a bird, the ring ouzel, Turdus torquatus.
1770G. White Selborne xxxi. (1789) 84 [The ring ousels] breed in great abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called there Tor-ousels. 1885Swainson Provinc. Names Birds 8 Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus)..Tor ouzel (Devon). Rock, or crag ouzel (Craven). 1954C. E. Hubbard Grasses 71 Tor grass..A worthless grass of neglected open grassland on chalk and limestone. 1976Times 28 June 14/8 Coarse Tor and Erect Brome grasses have supplanted the grazed pastures.
▪ II. † tor, a. Obs.
Forms: 3–5 tor, 4 toor, 4–5 toore, 5 tore, toure. See also tere a.
[The Old Norse and OE. adverbial particle tor- ‘hardly, with difficulty, ill-’, used esp. with verbal adjs. as in ON. tor-fengr hard to get, tor-næmr hard to learn, tor-sýnn hard to see, tor-talinn pple., counted with difficulty, tor-tryggr hard of belief; also OE. tor-cyrre hard to turn or convert, tor-beᵹéte hard to get. In ME., esp. in those parts in which the Norse influence was strong, this particle was treated as a separate word, in the sense ‘hard, difficult, ill’, and was used esp. with the infinitive, as tor (for) to tell, tor for to ken; the former of these was a favourite phrase of the alliterative poets. In some instances, as already in Ormin, tor alone was used attributively. ON. and OE. tor- were cognate with OHG. zur-, Gothic tuz-, Gr. δυς-, Skr. dus-, hard, evil, ill-: with the ON. and OE. words cf. Gr. δυσαής ill-blowing, δύσβρωτος hard to eat, δυσµαθής difficult to learn. Senses 2 and 3 appear to be the same word, but the change of sense is remarkable.]
1. Difficult, hard, toilsome; irksome, tedious; = tere a.
c1200Ormin 6350 Harrd & strang & tor & hefiȝ lif to ledenn. a1225Ancr. R. 108 (MS. T.) Ho is grucchere, & ful itohen: dangeruse & tor for to paien. Ibid. 254 An honful ȝerden arn tor to breken [v.r. boeð erueð forte breken]. 13..Cursor M. 14085 (Cott.) O þair gladnes war tor to tell. c1350Will. Palerne 5066 It were toor forto telle treuli al þe soþe. c1400Destr. Troy 644 But this tyme is so tore & we no tome haue.
2. Strong, sturdy. (? Hard to conquer.)
a1400–50Alexander 5500 Ser Tarbyn, a tulke with many toore thousandis. c1400Destr. Troy 320 Grete toures full toure all þe toune vmbe. Ibid. 1035 Of the tidiest of Tessaile, tore men of strenght. Ibid. 1131 Telamon, þat is a tore kyng. Ibid. 6156 Dissyrus..Of all the Troiens to tell torest in armys.
3. In vague or loose uses:
a. Full, replete;
b. Great, violent, excessive.
c1400Destr. Troy 3348 Trowe ye not Troy is tore of all godis, As plaintiouse in yche place as þe prouynse of Achaia? Ibid. 13723 Þis proud in hir yre..Bad hym turne vnto tessail in a tore hast.
▪ III. tor
erron. spelling of taw n.2, a marble; obs. pa. tense of tear v.1 |