entry
turmoil
/ˈtɜːmɔɪl/state of confusion, disorder, or unrest
From Latin turm (troop) + O.French moil (to wet).
Word Ancestry
A mill hopper is not a glamorous object. It sits there above the stones, shaking and funneling grain with a stubborn, jittery motion, and that little machine may be the ghost behind turmoil. English first catches the word in the 1520s, and the sources point to French tremouille, with no perfectly clean family tree — which is exactly the sort of mess the word itself likes to describe. Some scholars hear the tug of moil in it, that old sense of wet, grind, and drudgery; others notice a possible echo of turma, Latin for a troop or squadron, which gives the whole thing a hint of a crowd in motion. So turmoil may be one of those words born where language cannot decide whether it is watching a machine, a muddy laborer, or a panicked company of soldiers — and in that uncertainty, it becomes the perfect name for chaos.
The Story
A mill hopper is not a glamorous object. It sits there above the stones, shaking and funneling grain with a stubborn, jittery motion, and that little machine may be the ghost behind turmoil. English first catches the word in the 1520s, and the sources point to French tremouille, with no perfectly clean family tree — which is exactly the sort of mess the word itself likes to describe. Some scholars hear the tug of moil in it, that old sense of wet, grind, and drudgery; others notice a possible echo of turma, Latin for a troop or squadron, which gives the whole thing a hint of a crowd in motion. So turmoil may be one of those words born where language cannot decide whether it is watching a machine, a muddy laborer, or a panicked company of soldiers — and in that uncertainty, it becomes the perfect name for chaos.
Kin & Kindred
From 'turm'·troop, squadron, military unit
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'moil'·to wet, soften; later to labor, toil
Derived Terms
English words from this root