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[…] Wrong or Iniury, is in French aptly called Tort, becauſe Iniury & wrong is wreſted or crooked, being contrary to that which is right and ſtreight. […] And Britton ſaith that Tort a la ley eſt contrarye [a wrong to the law is contrary], and as aptly for the cauſe aforeſaid is iniury in English called wrong.]
Personal actions are ſuch vvhereby a man claims a debt, or perſonal duty, or damages in lieu thereof; and likevviſe vvhereby a man claims a ſatisfaction in damages for ſome injury done to his perſon or property. The former are ſaid to be founded on contracts, the latter upon torts or vvrongs: […] of the latter all actions for treſpaſſes, nuſances, aſſaults, defamatory vvords, and the like.
A tort is a legal wrong committed upon the person or property independent of contract. It may be either (1) a direct invasion of some legal right of the individual; (2) the infraction of some public duty by which special damage accrues to the individual; (3) the violation of some private obligation by which like damage accrues to the individual.
Then gan triumphant Trompets ſovvnd on hye, / That ſent to heuen the ecchoed report / Of their nevv ioy, and happie victory / Gainſt him, that had them long oppreſt with tort, / And faſt impriſoned in ſieged fort.
For no vvild beaſts ſhould do them any torte / There or abroad, ne vvould his maieſtye / Vſe them but vvell, vvith gracious clemencye, / As vvhome he knevv to him both faſt and true; […]
And the firſt that came and gaue them moſt comfort was Henry Erle of Lãcaſter with yͤ wrie neck, called Tort coll [torticollis], who was brother to Thomas Erle of Lãcaſter yͭ was behedded, as ye haue heard before, who was a right vertuous & good knight as after ye ſhal here.
1847, R W Emerson, “Initial, Dæmonic, and Celestial Love”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, part I (The Initial Love), page 158:
Yet holds he them with tortest rein, / That they may seize and entertain / The glance that to their glance opposes, / Like fiery honey sucked from roses.
Je regrette, vous avez tort. I'm afraid you are mistaken.
Nous avons fait notre choix, à tort ou à raison. We have made our choice, rightly or wrongly.
1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manchefr.Wikisource, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Volume I, Chapter IV:
e suis le valeureux don Quichotte de la Manche, le défaiseur de torts et le réparateur d’iniquités.
... I am the valiant Don Quixote of La Mancha, the undoer of wrongs and the repairer of iniquities.