Torso
/ˈtɔːr.soʊ/noun
The trunk of the human body, excluding the head, arms, and legs.
Did you know?Torso entered English from Italian, where it first meant a tree trunk or the broken stump of a statue, and only later the human body’s trunk—so the word carries a quiet history of fracture and absence.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*deru-
“oak, tree, wood”
Latin
Latin
truncus
“a trunk, stump, or main stem”
Late Latin
Late Latin
torso
“a tree trunk; a broken stump or fragment of a statue”
16th Century
Italian
torso
“a tree trunk; the trunk of a statue or human body”
16th Century
French
torse
“the trunk of the body”
17th Century
English
torso
“the trunk of the human body”