English → Latin
“screw” in Latin
cochleasnail; spiral (form of a snailshell); screw of a pressepitoniumplug, stop, water cockdētorqueōto turn or bend aside, off or away, deflect; to twist out of shape, distort; to distort, misrepresentdistorqueōto turn different ways, twist, distort, warp; to torment, tortureoculuseye; sight, vision; luminary of the sun and stars
The English word screw itself goes back to Latin scrōfa.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
screw s.
cochlea: epitonium (ἐπιτόνιον: screw to tighten the strings of a musical instrument). The threads of a screw, rugae per cochleam bullantes (Plin., 18, 31, 74). A female screw, *cochleae matrix. Archimedes’s screw, cochlea (for drawing up water). Cork-screw, *instrumentum extrahendis corticibus
screw v.
To use a screw, *cochlea adigere or astringere aliquid. To screw anything to anything, cochlea affigere aliquid alicui rei: to screw anything in anything, cochleae ope inserere aliquid.
To twist, contort, detorquere (general term): distorquere (e.g., oculos, os).
Proverbially, To screw anything out (figuratively), elicere aliquid: eblandiri aliquid (by flattery or wheedling): expiscari aliquid (to fish it out): extorquere aliquid (by violence). To screw one’s self into anything, se insinuare in aliquid (e.g., in familiaritatem alicujus; ineausam, etc.): se immiscere or inserere alicui rei (into a crowd of persons, or into a thing). To screw anything too tight, aliquid (nimis) intendere (e.g., leges, Plin.). To screw one’s self up to anything, intendere se ad aliquid (e.g., intendere se ad firmitatem, Cic.).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for screw?
- The usual Latin words for “screw” are cochlea, epitonium, dētorqueō; also distorqueō, oculus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.