_tor_

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1972
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/73719

tor In "Terra Nova", _tor_ is used not only in the Scots and somewhat general sense of a steep, usually rocky hill, but also--and apparently uniquely-- for a _"steep-to"_ rocky, somewhat conical island rising from the sea, with little or no beach of shallows. In Cornwall, Devon and adjacent areas, a _tor_ is a high pile of rocks or, exceptionally, a steep small hill with bare tock at the top. This would seem to imply the form _tor_ in Old Cornish but, except in place-names, it is unrecorded as such. Welsh and Old Welsh have _twr_ and _twrr_. respectively, for heap, pile. Welsh has, also, _torr,_ belly,boss, protuberance. The Gaelic form--from which the Scots is presumably derived--is_torr_. hill,mountain, aminence, tower, heap, which (as a verb) means to heap up, pile up; the diminutive, _torran_, signifies a mound or knoll. Old French has _tor_, a tower or eminence, presumaly derived from latin _turris_, a tower, from the Greek. W. J. KIRWIN DEC 1972 JH DEC 1972 Not used Not used Withdrawn