A person who deliberately inflicts severe pain on someone as punishment or to extract information.
From Old French 'torturer,' from Latin 'torturare' (to twist), which combined 'torquere' (to twist, as in wringing); the name comes from the physical twisting involved in the practice.
The word's root 'torque' (twisting) shows what torture originally meant—literal physical twisting—but the term now encompasses psychological cruelty, showing how language evolves as practices evolve.
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