Added 9 October 2026
torpedo
/ˌtɔː(ɹ)ˈpiː.dəʊ/ noun
Latin root: torpēdō Coined: 1805, by Robert Fulton Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about torpedo at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- A professional killer who uses a gun.
- A large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States.
- An explosive device that is set off in an oil well (or a gas well) to start or to increase the flow of oil (or gas).
verb
Origin
* Borrowed from Latin torpēdō (“a torpedo fish; numbness, torpidity, electric ray”), from torpeō (“to be stiff, numb, torpid; to be astounded; to be inactive”) + -ēdō (noun suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff”). In the military sense coined by Robert Fulton in 1805. Cognate with Old English steorfan (“to die”), Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”), Lithuanian tirpstu (“to become rigid”), Old Church Slavonic трупети (trupeti). * (type of car): From 1908, after "the Torpedo", a car designed by Captain Theo Masui.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)