Torsi

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The upper sections of the human body excluding the head and limbs; plural form referring to multiple such upper body parts; also used in anatomical contexts to describe several torsos collectively
2. Multiple human upper bodies considered without heads and extremities; a term frequently applied in biology or art for distinguishing several figures' central body parts; the plural form of torso
3. Refers to more than one torso, meaning several central body areas minus head and limbs; commonly used in medical, artistic, or anatomical discussions when identifying multiple bodies' main core structures

Etymology: "Torsi" is simply the plural of "torso", so its story is really the story of the singular. That word began in ancient Greece as "thyrsos", the name of a staff carried in the rites of Bacchus, the god of wine. The staff was a tall stalk, often topped with a pine cone or ivy, and its shape is what links it to the body: a long, upright trunk with the rest of the plant set aside. The Greek word passed into Latin as "thyrsus", and from there into Late Latin as "tursus". Italian then turned it into "torso", which referred to the trunk of a statue or figure without its head and limbs. That sense is the one that matters here. The shift from a wine-god's staff to the bare core of a human figure happened within the Italian term, and English took the word from Italian with that art-historical meaning intact.

Synonyms: torsos, trunks, bodies, chests, midsections