*Tort* came into English straight from French many centuries ago, and it still looks a little odd. Its root meaning of “twisted” (as opposed to “straight”) obviously came to mean “wrong” (as opposed to “right”). Every first-year law student takes a course in the important subject of torts. Torts include all the so-called “product-liability” cases, against manufacturers of cars, household products, children's toys, and so on. They also cover dog bites, slander and libel, and a huge variety of other very personal cases of injury, both mental and physical—Torts class is never dull. If you're sued for a tort and lose, you usually have to pay “damages”—that is, a sum of money—to the person who you wronged.

To obtain from a person by force, threats, or illegal power.

To extort is literally to wrench something out of someone. *Extortion* is a mainstay of organized crime. Just as the school bully extorts lunch money from the smaller kids in exchange for not beating them up, thugs extort “protection” money from business owners with threats of violence. But that's only one kind of extortion; a mobster might extort favors from a politician with threats of revealing some dark secret, just as you might extort a favor from a brother or sister by promising not to tell on them.

To twist in a violent manner.

Circus *contortionists* are known for twisting their bodies into pretzels; such *contortions* tend to be easier for females than for males, and much easier for the young than for the old. When trying to say something uncomfortable or dishonest, people often go through verbal contortions. But when someone else “twists” something you said or did, we usually say instead that they've *distorted* it.

(1) Having many twists, bends, or turns; winding. (2) Crooked or tricky; involved, complex.

A labyrinth is a tortuous maze. The first labyrinth was built as a prison for the monstrous Minotaur, half bull and half man; only by holding one end of a thread was the heroic Theseus able to enter and slay the Minotaur and then exit. A tortuous problem, a tortuous history, and the tortuous path of a bill through Congress all have many unexpected twists and turns; a tortuous explanation or argument may be too crooked for its own good. Don't confuse *tortuous* with *torturous,* which means “tortured” or “painfully unpleasant” ; *tortuous* has nothing to do with torture.

Lively in an attractive way.

*Vivacious* can be used to describe a piece of music or writing, but it's generally used today to describe people, and particularly women. The main female characters in Shakespeare's plays—Beatrice in *Much Ado About Nothing*, Rosalind in *As You Like It,* and Portia in *The Merchant of Venice*, for example—are often full of humor, spirit, and *vivacity.*

A sociable person with a love of excellent food and drink.

*Bon vivant* comes straight from French, where it means literally “good liver,” and is still pronounced in the French way, though we've actually been using it in English since the 17th century. A proper bon vivant has some money and lots of friends and plenty of style and knows a good wine and can tell a great story and loves to laugh. Because of all these requirements, true bons vivants are rather rare—but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of people who hope to be one someday.

To give new life to; bring back to life.

Worn-out soil may be revivified by careful organic tending. A terrific new recruit can revivify a discouraged football team, and an imaginative and energetic new principal can revivify a failing high school. After World War II, one European country after another was slowly revivified, their economies and cultural life gradually coming back to life. Notice that *revivify* looks like some other words with very similar meanings, such as *revive, revitalize,* and *reinvigorate.*

Operation on living animals, often for experimental purposes.

*Vivisection* includes the Latin root *sect,* meaning “cut.” The Greek physician Galen, who lived during the 2nd century A.D., practiced vivisection on live monkeys and dogs to learn such things as the role of the spinal cord in muscle activity and whether veins and arteries carry air or blood; his findings formed the basis of medical practice for more than a thousand years. Vivisection continues to be used in drug and medical research today, but often in secret, since it makes most people very uncomfortable and some groups are violently opposed to it.