Other forms: torches
A torch is the handheld light you switch on in the dark, in British English. Shine a torch, a torch beam, take a torch.
American English says flashlight and reserves torch for a burning brand, which is why the two countries picture different objects. Carry a torch for somebody means to love them without return. In sport, the Olympic torch is a real flame. Note that the French torche first meant a twist of straw.
1nountorchA handheld electric light.
“The power went off, so we used a torch to find the fuse box.”
2nounburningA burning brand carried in the hand.
“The villagers marched up to the castle carrying flaming torches.”
torch is a light.
Also accepted in games: flashlight
Old French torche means a twisted bundle of straw, from Latin torquere, to twist. Torque and torture come from the same twisting.
Proto-Indo-European
*terkʷ- — to spin; to turn
Latin
torqua
Vulgar Latin
*torca — coiled object
Old French
torche
Middle English
torch
English, today
torch
Built from
The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). common mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun burning stick). pass on the torch (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (“to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA