torpedo

Torpedo comes from Latin torpēdō, meaning both 'electric ray' and 'numbness,' itself from torpeō, 'to be stiff or numb,' plus the noun suffix -ēdō. That root traces back to Proto-Indo-European *ster-, meaning 'stiff.'

The word first described the electric ray, a fish whose shock could leave a person numb. In 1805, Robert Fulton borrowed the name for a new naval weapon, and by 1908 it also named a type of car after one designed by Captain Theo Masui.

It shares its deep root with Old English steorfan, the ancestor of 'starve,' along with Ancient Greek stereós ('solid'), Lithuanian tirpstu ('to become rigid'), and Old Church Slavonic trupeti — all tied to the idea of stiffening or going rigid.