Also 6–7 torte. [a. OF. tort (11th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = Pr. tort, Sp. tuerto, It. torto, med.L. tortum, wrong, injustice (cf. tortum facere, 864, in Capitul. Caroli II), sbst. use of L. tortus, -um twisted, wrung, pa. pple. of torquēre to twist, wring.]
† 1. Injury, wrong. Obs. [see TORTIOUS a. 1].
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. ii. (Skeat), l. 71. Than wer tort & forthe [? force] nought worthe an haw about.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 32. So Iob and Ieremie, preast with woes and wrongs, Did right descryue their ioyes, their woes and torts.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. v. 17. It was complaind that thou hadst done great tort Unto an aged woman, poore and bare. Ibid. (1591), M. Hubberd, 1078. No wild beasts should do them any torte.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 425. To show King Iames, my torments, pangs, and tort.
1748. Melmoth, Fitzosborne Lett., lxxii. (1749), II. 215. Deem not, ye plaintive crew, that suffer wrong, Ne thou, O man! who deal’st the tort, misween The equal gods.
† b. Physical injury or pain; torment. false or wrong statement. Obs. rare.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., V. 193. Good t’expell all sorts Of burning Feauers, in their violent torts. Ibid., x. 488. No Tort I introduct,… I Organize the Truth.
2. Eng. Law. The breach of a duty imposed by law, whereby some person acquires a right of action for damages.
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 214. Ministers of the Gospell, to whome the keyes of right do apperteine (for the others did by dissesin and tort, hold the possession of them).
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., Stat. Robt. I., 23. Saifeand the Law and consuetude of Burghis, quhilk is, to defend preciselie torte and non reason, that is wrang and vnlaw.
1622. Callis, Stat. Sewers (1647), 184. If two be admitted to a Copyhold by Tort, or to an Office in a Court of Justice unlawfully.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. lxvii. (1739), 162. In case it concerned only a Tort done to the party, he was amerced.
1714. Scroggs, Courts-leet (ed. 3), 59. This is a private Tort to the particular Inhabitants of this Vill.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. viii. 117. Personal actions are such whereby a man claims a debt, or personal duty, or damages in lieu thereof; and, likewise whereby a man claims a satisfaction in damages for some injury done to his person or property. The former are said to be founded on contracts, the latter upon torts or wrongs.
1887. Sir F. Pollock (title), The Law of Torts.
1895. Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, II. 510, note. Tort again is [in 13th c. A.-Fr.] a large, loose word. Britton, I. 77, heads a chapter on some of the smaller offences present in the eyres by the title De plusours tortz.
1909. Sir F. Pollock, in Encycl. Laws of Eng. (ed. 2), XIV. 134. What we now understand by a tort is a breach of some duty between citizens, defined by the general law, which creates a civil cause of action. The duty must be founded in common right…. It must be a duty assigned by law, not dependent on the will of the parties…. There must be a private right of action.
