- 1扭力、扭矩（讓東西繞軸轉動的力）。汽車上常和馬力 horsepower 一起講：扭力管起步和爬坡的力道，馬力管速度。torque wrench 是扭力扳手。
*Torque* is turning force — the strength of a push or pull that makes something spin around a centre point. When you open a tight jar, the force your hand puts on the lid to twist it is torque. When you use a longer spanner to a bolt, you get more torque from the same effort, because torque depends both on how hard you push and on how far from the centre you push.
In cars this is the word that separates people who know engines from people who don't, so it is worth getting right. An engine has both *power* (usually given in ) and *torque*. Roughly: torque is the shove you feel when you press the pedal and the car pulls away or climbs a hill; power is more about how fast it can go and how quickly it keeps gaining speed. Truck drivers and off-road drivers care about torque; racing fans talk about power. Electric cars are famous for giving all their torque the instant you touch the pedal, which is why they feel so quick from a even when the top speed is nothing special.
There is also a *torque wrench* — a tool that lets you tighten a bolt to exactly the right tightness, no more. Mechanics use it constantly, and here *torque* turns into a verb: to torque a bolt to a set figure. That verb use lives almost entirely in workshops and manuals.
One separate meaning you may bump into: a *torc* or *torque* is also an ancient neck ring of twisted metal, worn by Celtic people long ago. Same twisting idea, completely different picture. It shows up in history books and museums.
Pronunciation: it rhymes with *fork*. The -que ending is silent as a syllable — do not say "tor-kway".
From the word’s history
From Latin torqueō 'to twist'.
借自拉丁文 torqueō「扭轉」。
組成From Latin torqueō, "to twist, to turn". The picture inside the word is literally a twist — everything it means, from a spinning engine shaft to a twisted metal neck ring, comes back to that one action.
同家族的字
- torsionThe twisting of a material — from the same Latin torqueō.
- tortureFrom Latin torqueō too; the original idea was the body being twisted and wrenched.
- distortTo twist something out of its true shape — the -tort piece is the same Latin root.
- contortTo twist together, to twist badly out of shape — again the -tort root.
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
torquenoun詞源 1/tɔɹk/
- 1
engineeringmechanical-engineeringmechanicsA rotational or twisting effect of a force; a moment of force, defined for measurement purposes as an equivalent straight line force multiplied by the distance from the axis of rotation (SI unit newton-metre or N·m; imperial unit pound-foot or lb·ft, not to be confused with the foot pound-force, commonly "foot-pound", a unit of work or energy)
- The relative strengths of the various torques will depend on both the spacecraft environment and the form and structure of the spacecraft itself.
- The drillhead produces the drilling rotation and torque but also must slide out of position to allow the machine to manipulate the finisher drill steel and consumables.
torqueverb詞源 1/tɔɹk/
- 1
engineeringmechanical-engineeringmechanicsTo make something rotate about an axis by imparting torque to it.
torquenoun詞源 2/tɔɹk/
- 1
historicalA tightly braided necklace or collar, often made of metal, worn by various early European peoples.
- But there are the lesser sub-kings of Wales, true to the immemorial schisms amongst themselves, which destroyed the realm of Ambrosius, and rendered vain the arm of Arthur. With their torques of gold, and wild eyes, and hair cut round ears and brow, they stare on the scene.
- People of high rank also wore a torque of gold round the neck, and I observed that our guide had one on.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。