Forms: see below. [Found in 15th c. in forms tortuca, tortuce, tortuge, tortu, tortuse, tortose. Tortūca (c. 1255 in Albertus Magnus, Animal., 24 § 126, 25 § 59) was the late popular L. name (see below), which later regularly became, as still in Prov. and Sp., tortuga, and in F. tortue. (Diefenbach cites also med.L. turtus, tortus.) Of the Eng. forms, tortuce evidently represented the Latin, tortue and tortu the French, and the 16th c. tortuga the Sp. form. Tortuse was prob. a mere variant of tortuce (cf. lettuce, letuse below); tortose and the later forms in -esse, -ise, -oise, being further variants, partly at least due to shifting of stress and obscuration of the vowel. The forms in final -s may have arisen simply from dropping -e mute; but some of them may have come from taking the possessive tortu’s, tortou’s, in tortou’s skin, tortue’s shell, as the nominative. The form tortoise appears c. 1569, preceded by tortoyse, 1552.
The late popular L. or Romanic tortūca is commonly held to be a derivative of L. tortus twisted, with the formative suffix seen in L. carrūca, festūca, lactūca, verrūca, and to refer to the crooked feet of the south European species (Diez). With L. tortūca, F. tortue, Eng. tortuce, tortuse, cf. L. lactūca, F. laitue, Eng. lettuce, letuse, and the variant forms of the last. The classical L. name was testūdo, from testa shell, whence It. testudine, testuggine.]
1. A four-footed reptile of the order Chelonia, in which the trunk is enclosed between a carapace and plastron, formed by the dorsal vertebræ, ribs, and sternum; the skin being covered with large horny plates, commonly called the shell.
The Chelonia are usually divided into Land-tortoises (Testudinidæ), Marsh-tortoises (Emydæ), River-tortoises (Trionycidæ), and Marine tortoises (Chelonidæ), in which the feet are compressed into flippers or paddles. The last are now commonly distinguished as turtles; but this name is sometimes extended to species of the Emydæ and Trionycidæ. By some zoologists the name ‘tortoise’ is confined to the terrestrial genus Testudo and its immediate congeners; see also TERRAPIN.
α. 5 tortuce, tortuge, (tortuca, 6 tortuga).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. cviii. (Bodl. MS. c. 1450), lf. 287 b/1. The tortuge [ed. 1495 tortuse] is acounted amonge snailles for he is closed bitwene twey hard schellis … and of tortuca is double kinde þat one woneþ in ryuers & þat oþer in londe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 497/2. Tortuce, beest…, tortuca.
1577. Frampton, Joyfull Newes, II. 73 b. [Lagartos] take out their yonglynges, as the Tortugas of the sea doeth.
1596. Raleigh, Discov. Guiana, 54. We found thousands of Tortugas egs, which are very wholesome meate.
[1832. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., xvii. 223. The arraw or tortuga is a large fresh water tortoise.]
β. 5 tortu, turtu, tortou; 6–7 tortue.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 874. The sedis in a tortous skyn (testudinis coreo) thou drie.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1906), 15. In sayeng youre praiers … be not like the crane or the tortu;… thei are like the crane and the turtu that turnithe her hede and fases bacward, and lokithe ouer the shuldre.
1587. Mascall, Govt. Cattle, Horses (1627), 184. If Sinews or Nerues bee broken or bruised,… Yee shall lay thereon the flesh of a Tortue,… beaten with the powder of Mullenherbe.
γ. 5 tortose, 5–7 tortuse, 6 -tuous, -tueis, 7 -tuis, -tus.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Auian, ii. The … fable … of the tortose and of the other byrdes.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XVIII. cviii. (W. de W.), gg iv b/1. The londe Tortuse [Bodl. MS. tortuge] dwellyth in houses and in wodes and is clene and good to etynge.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Tegimen, The Tortuous, when she is shronke into hir shelle.
1590. Tarlton, News Purgat. (1844), 76. She that … hath the tortueis under her feet, and gads not abroad.
1598. Yong, Diana, 49. Their shields … were broad shels of monstrous Tortuses.
1630. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd. (1658), 39. In the sense of Hearing, the Hart excelleth all others…; of Feeling the Tortuis.
1651. Tortus [see TORTOISE-SHELL 4].
δ. 6 torteyse, torteaux, 6–7 tortesse, -teise, 7 tortise, (-ties).
1545. Elyot, Chelys, a torteyse.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 106. The Tortesse is reckned one amongst the Snaile or Wormes.
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., I. (1586), 3. I goe to it as the Torteise to the inchantment.
1600. E. de Jonghe’s True Declar. Army by Sea, 22. There they saw verie great Torteauxes. Ibid. The same day they took a Torteaux.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 205. The brooke it selfe abounding with Tortesses.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Having shells, as the Torteise. Ibid., 124. Tortise. In the deserts of Africa, Lybia, and Mauritania.
ε. 6–7 tortoyse, 6–8 -tois, (6 -toys, 7 -toisse, turtois), 6– tortoise.
1552. Huloet, Tortoyse fyshe, chelys.
1555. Eden, Decades, 200. In … Cuba, are founde great Tortoyses (which are certeyne shell fysshes) of such byggenesse that tenne or fyfteene men are scarsely able to lyfte one of them owt of the water.
1569. Tortoises [see 2].
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 39. Venus standeth on the Tortoys, as shewing that Loue creepeth on by degrees.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VI. xxii. I. 131. Tortoisses … so great … that one of their shels will serve to cover an house.
1611. Bible, Lev. xi. 29. The Weasell, and the Mouse, and the Tortois, after his kinde.
1617. Keymis, in Raleigh’s Apol., 34. I have sent … one roule of Tobacco, one Tortoyse.
1648. Turtoises [see b].
1666. J. Davies, Hist. Caribby Isles, 133. There are Land-Tortoises, Sea-Tortoises, and Fresh-water Tortoises, which are of different figures.
1699. Garth, Dispens., II. 19. And there, the Tortois hung her Coat o’ Mail.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 102. Going down to the Sea-side, I found a large Tortoise or Turtle.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 737. The perfect and typical Reptile, as the Lizard, the Tortoise, and the Serpent, breathes air, and air only.
b. A figure or image of a tortoise.
1648. J. Raymond, Il Merc. Italico, 42. Two Marble Pyramids that stand on brasse Turtoises.
1853. Humphreys, Coin-Coll. Man., iii. (1876), 21. The coins of Ægina are easily recognized by the tortoise which is their invariable type.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 22 April, 3/3. Two metal tortoises—probably tobacco-jars?… were lying at hand on the table.
c. Taken as a type of slowness of motion; hence, applied to a very slow person or thing.
[1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, II. III. 198. He is slow in his Negotiations, advancing like a Tortoise.]
1825. Scott, Talism., xxii. The speediest horse he had ever mounted was a tortoise in comparison to those of the Arabian sage.
1842. I. Williams, Baptistery, II. xvii. (1874), 6. One is travelling with a tortoise by his side, How slowly doth he wend.
2. a. A sort of penthouse, under which besiegers were protected as a tortoise by its shell; = TESTUDO 3.
1569. Stocker, trans. Diod. Sic., III. viii. 113/2. He had also many other Engines … and two great and puissaunt Tortoises to helpe them.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. xiii. 45. Battering-Rams, Sowes, Horses, Tortuses.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, VIII. 159. Tortoises, beneath whose roofing safe, They, filling the deep moat, might for the towers Make fit foundation.
1856. Grote, Greece, II. xcii. XII. 129. His soldiers, protected from missiles by moveable penthouses (called Tortoises).
b. = TESTUDO 3 b.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, II. 601. Their Targets in a Tortoise cast, the Foes Secure advancing, to the Turrets rose.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist., XIX. iv. (1827), VIII. 139. They came forward in the form of the testudo, or tortoise.
1863. Whyte-Melville, Gladiators, 408. He bade them form with their shields the figure that was called ‘the Tortoise.’
3. Short for TORTOISE-SHELL. Usually attrib. or as adj.
1654. Dorothy Osborne, Lett. to Sir W. Temple (1888), 240. The ring … is very well, only a little of the biggest. Send me a tortoise one that is a little less.
1902. Lond. Gaz., No 3833/4. A Gold Snuff-Box,… the bottom Tortoise.
1902. Fur & Feather, 19 Sept., 232/2. The Young Brindle or Tortoise class [of Cavies].
4. attrib. (sometimes = adj.) and Comb., as tortoise broth, feeder, god, -heart, -myth, pond; tortoise-headed, -shaped adjs., -like adj. and adv.; esp. with reference to the slow gait of the tortoise, as tortoise-hours, -pace, race; tortoise-footed, -paced is adjs.; also tortoise-beetle, a leaf-beetle of the family Cassididæ, from the resemblance of the wing-cases and prothorax to the carapace of a tortoise; † tortoise encrinite, a fossil crinoid of the genus Marsupites; tortoise-flower, a plant of the genus Chelone, from the resemblance of the corolla to the head of a tortoise (also called turtle-head); † tortoise-iron, ? a peg for tethering captured tortoises; tortoise-lyre, a lyre made of a tortoise-shell; tortoise-plant, a South African plant, Testudinaria elephantipes, allied to the yam, having a large fleshy root-stock growing above ground, the surface of which becomes deeply cracked so as to suggest the carapace of a tortoise; also called elephant’s foot and Hottentot’s bread; tortoise-roof = sense 2; tortoise-roofed a., having a roof resembling a tortoise-shell; tortoise rotifer, a rotifer or wheel-animalcule of the family Brachionidæ, having a broad shield-shaped body; tortoise tent, a kind of tent with a roof shaped like the shell of a tortoise; tortoise-wood: see quot.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., VI. lix. Brasil *Tortoise Beetle…. Its Legs and Body of a golden green, with Copper Edges, it creeps softly, and is slow to fly.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxix. 74. Cassida viridis, a tortoise beetle,… covers her group of eggs with a partially transparent membrane.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. 178. *Tortoise broth is prepared from the flesh of the Testudo Græca…. Some of the fresh water tortoises may be substituted.
1808. Parkinson, Org. Rem. Former World, II. xxii. 225. The extraordinary fossil, which, from the disposition of the plates of which it is formed, may be termed the *Tortoise Encrinite.
1855. Kingsley, Heroes, Theseus, II. 213. Holla, thou *tortoise-feeder.
1818. Milman, Samor, 83. Thou *tortoise-footed sluggard!
1750. Parsons, in Phil. Trans. (1753), XLVII. 120. The *tortoise-headed seal. On the shores of many parts of Europe.
1865. J. H. Ingraham, Pillar of Fire (1872), 223. A tortoise-headed god.
1873. E. Brennan, Witch of Nemi, etc., 163. Fain would I beguile the *tortoise-hours.
1697. Dampier, Voy. round World (1699), 37. The Moskito-men make their own striking Instruments as Harpoons, Fish-hooks, and *Tortoise-Iron or Pegs.
c. 1630. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 36. Stone-rolling Tay, Tine *tortoise-like that flows.
1645. Bp. Hall, Remedy Discontents, 141. What is this, but Tortoise-like to be clogg’d with a weighty shel?
1804. [see TORTOISE-SHELL 4 b].
1820. Shelley, Hymn to Mercury, xxv. With his left hand about his knees—the right Held his belovèd *tortoise-lyre tight.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., xii. 334. The *Tortoise-myths of North America and India.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebastian, III. i. Thou mov’st a *tortoise-pace to my relief.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Cypress Grove, Wks. (1711), 122. Swift and active pilgrims come to the end of it in the morning or at noon, which *tortoise-paced wretches … scarce … crawl unto at midnight.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Tortoise-plant.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 288. Leaguered by the *tortoise-roof.
1886. Pall Mall G., 12 Oct., 4/1. They [Mormons] convene within that hideously ugly, *tortoise-roofed building called the Tabernacle.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxix. 77. Those singular immovable *tortoise-shaped insects.
1890. Daily News, 8 April, 3/2. The patients found every care bestowed upon them in the *tortoise tent.
1901. Daily Chron., 23 July, 3/2. A good case made out for the ‘tortoise’ tent as used by the Portland Hospital.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Tortoise-wood, a variety of Zebra-wood.
