different between purgatory vs torture

English

Etymology

From Latin purg?t?rium (“cleansing”). Cognate to English purge.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p????t??i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p????t?i/
• US: pur?ga?to?ry
• UK: pur?ga?tory

Noun

purgatory (countable and uncountable, plural purgatories)

1. (Christianity) Alternative letter-case form of Purgatory
2. Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption.
   • 1605, Nicholas Breton, An Olde Mans Lesson, and a Young Mans Loue, London: Edward White,^[1]

     […] many Gods breedeth heathens miseries, many countries trauailers humors, many wiues mens purgatories, and many friends trustes ruine:

   • 1774, John Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks, London: T. Becket, Act I, Scene 1, p. 6,^[2]

     I laid my rank and fortune at the fair one’s feet, and would have married instantly; but that Oldworth opposed my precipitancy, and insisted upon a probation of six months absence—It has been a purgatory!

   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth, Chapter 25,^[3]

     It might be […] that Ruth had worked her way through the deep purgatory of repentance up to something like purity again; God only knew!

   • 1904, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, Chapter 10,^[4]

     Later came midsummer, with the stifling heat, when the dingy killing beds of Durham’s became a very purgatory; one time, in a single day, three men fell dead from sunstroke.

   • 1997, J. M. Coetzee, Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, Penguin, Chapter 11, p. 100,^[5]

     […] that would mean he would be irrecoverably Afrikaans and would have to spend years in the purgatory of an Afrikaans boarding-school, as all farm-children do, before he would be allowed to come back to the farm.

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

purgatory (comparative more purgatory, superlative most purgatory)

1. Tending to cleanse; expiatory.
   • 1600, Philemon Holland (translator), The Roman Historie Written by T. Livius of Padua, London, Book 41, p. 1103,^[6]

     Last of all, the prodigie of Siracusa was expiat by a purgatory sacrifice, by direction from the soothsaiers to what gods, supplications and sacrifice should be made.

   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, London: J. Dodsley, p. 272,^[7]

     This purgatory interval is not unfavourable to a faithless representative, who may be as good a canvasser as he was a bad governor.

See also

• heaven
• hell
• limbo
• gehenna

English

Etymology

From Middle English torture, from Old French torture, from Late Latin tort?ra (“a twisting, writhing, of bodily pain, a griping colic;” in Middle Latin “pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of persuasion, torture”), from Latin tortus (whence also tort), past participle of torquere (“to twist”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??t???/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??t???(?)/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t??(?)
• Homophone: torcher
• Hyphenation: tor?ture

Noun

torture (countable and uncountable, plural tortures)

1. intentional causing of somebody's experiencing agony

2. (chiefly literary) the "suffering of the heart" imposed by one on another, as in personal relationships

   Coventry City midfielder Josh Ruffels described his 11 months out injured as 'absolute torture' after the goalless draw with Derby County Under-21s. ([3])

3. (colloquial) (often as "absolute torture") stage fright, severe embarrassment

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

torture (third-person singular simple present tortures, present participle torturing, simple past and past participle tortured)

1. (transitive) To intentionally inflict severe pain or suffering on (someone).

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• torture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• torture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• torture at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• trouter, tutorer

Asturian

Verb

torture

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of torturar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of torturar

French

Etymology

From Late Latin tort?ra, from Latin tortus, from torque?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??.ty?/
• Rhymes: -y?
• Homophones: torturent, tortures

Noun

torture f (plural tortures)

1. torture

   • With these passages and other similar ones, the poor gentleman lost his judgement. He spent his nights and gave himself torture to understand them, to consider them more deeply, to take from them their deepest meaning, which Aristotle himself would not have been able to do, had he been resurrected for that very purpose.

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Swedish: tortyr c

Verb

torture

1. first-person singular present indicative of torturer
2. third-person singular present indicative of torturer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of torturer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of torturer
5. second-person singular imperative of torturer

Further reading

• “torture” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ure

Noun

torture f

1. plural of tortura

Anagrams

• rotture, rutterò, ruttore

Latin

Participle

tort?re

1. vocative masculine singular of tort?rus

Portuguese

Verb

torture

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of torturar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of torturar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of torturar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of torturar

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /to??tu?e/, [t?o??t?u.?e]

Verb

torture

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of torturar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of torturar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of torturar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of torturar.