turm

See also: Turm and türm

English

Etymology

From Middle English turmes pl, from Old French turme, from Latin turma (“troop, squadron, team”).

Noun

turm (plural turms)

1. (obsolete) A group of people, especially a military unit of cavalrymen.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 81, lines 61–66:

     Thence to the gates caſt round thine eye, and ſee / What conflux iſſuing forth, or entring in: / Pretors, Proconſuls to thir Provinces / Haſting or on return, in robes of State; / Lictors and rods the enſigns of thir power; / Legions and Cohorts, turmes of horſe and wings: […]

Further reading

• “turm”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “turm”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.