Forms: 1, 6– torr, 4–7 torre, 4– tor. [Occurs as an element in topographical names in early West Saxon charters; also, as a local term for a topographical feature from OE. onward. Generally held to be Celtic; but, though frequent in place-names in Cornwall, Devon, etc., not recorded as a ‘common noun’ in Cornish or Breton. In Welsh the nearest word is app. tẁr (= tŭr), OW. twrr ‘heap, pile’ (rare in place-names, but cf. Mynydd Twrr, old name of Holyhead Mountain, Rhŷs). Prob. cognate with Gaelic tòrr ‘hill of an abrupt or conical form, lofty hill, eminence, mound, grave, heap of ruins’ (Macleod and Dewar), primarily ‘heap, pile,’ cf. tòrr vb. ‘to heap up, pile up, bury,’ Ir. torraim ‘I heap up,’ and the deriv. Gael. torran ‘little hill, knoll, hillock,’ Ir. torrán ‘heap, pile, hillock.’ Cf. also quot. 1905.]
1. A high rock; a pile of rocks, gen. on the top of a hill; a rocky peak; a hill. In proper names of eminences or rocks in Cornwall, Devon, Peak of Derbyshire; also sporadically in some other counties, e.g., Glastonbury Tor, in Somerset.
847. Grant by K. Æthelwulf, in Birch, Cart. Sax., II. 34. Ærest on merce cumb [in Dorset], ðonne on grenan pytt, ðonne on ðone torr æt merce cumbes æwielme.
a. 1000. Boeth. Metr., v. 17. Oð him [a brook] oninnan felð muntes mæʓenstan … atrendlod of ðæm torre [in Prose vi. Micel stan wealwiende of þam heohan munte].
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4863. So hedous & so hoge hillis þam beforn, Cloȝes at was cloude he [cloud-high] clynterand torres, Rochis & rogh stanes, rokkis vnfaire.
1539. Pollard, in Lett. Suppress. Monast. (Camden), 261. The late abbott of Glastonberye … was drawyn thorowe the towne apon a hurdyll to the hyll cally the Torre, wheare he was putto execucion.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin. (1711), II. 38. Camallate, sumtyme a famose Toun or Castelle, apon a very Torre or Hille, wunderfully enstrengthenid of nature.
1610. Norden, Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728), 38. Mount St. Michaells, a steepe and most craggie torr.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon (1810), 6. A chain of hills … whose tops and torrs are in the winter often covered with a white cap.
1681. Cotton, Wond. Peake (1702), 42. Tor in that Country-Jargons uncouth sense, Expressing any Craggy Eminence.
1806. Gough, Camden’s Brit., II. 423/2. Matlock great Torr is 140 yards perpendicular.
1894. Baring-Gould, Kitty Alone, II. 160. Tors rise to the height of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet.
1905. Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v. Torr, In E. Cornw. ‘Tor’ means a pile of rocks, and is never used for a hill, or the top of a hill, unless the hill or top is so very rocky that the whole may be considered one pile of rocks.
1913. Lett. to Editor. A high hill in Haslingden, Lancashire, is simply called ‘The Tor.’
b. Locally in Scotland, applied to an artificial mound; a burial mound.
1794. Buchanan, Def. Scott. Highl., 142. What are the Torrs … but burrying hills?
1845. Statist. Acc. Scot., VI. 887. Its name [Torrance] was taken from an artificial mound of earth, still known by the name of the Tor, which is situated a quarter of a mile from the present house of Torrance.
† 2. ? A heavy mass of cloud. Obs.
(But the sense ‘rock mass’ seems also possible.)
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 874. A hue fro heuen I herde þoo, Lyk flodez fele laden, runnen on resse, & as þunder þrowez in torrez blo. Ibid., B. 951. Torres, Þat be þik þunder þrast þirled hem ofte.
3. attrib. Tor ouzel, local name of a bird, the ring ouzel, Turdus torquatus.
1770. G. White, Selborne, xxxi. (1789), 84. [The ring ousels] breed in great abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called there Tor-ousels.
1885. Swainson, Provinc. Names Birds, 8. Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus) … Tor ouzel (Devon). Rock, or crag ouzel (Craven).
