torque Look up torque at Dictionary.com
"rotating force," 1884, from L. torquere "to twist" (see thwart). The verb is attested from 1954. The word also is used (since 1834) by antiquarians and others as a term for the twisted metal necklace worn anciently by Gauls, Britons, Germans, etc., from L. torques in this sense. Earlier it had been called in Eng. torques (1693).