reluctantyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
reluctant: [17] To be reluctant about doing something is etymologically to ‘struggle against’ it. The word comes from the present participle of Latin reluctārī, a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘against’ and luctārī ‘struggle’. Among the first English writers to employ it was John Milton, who used it in the literal Latin sense, describing the writhing Satan: ‘a monstrous serpent on his belly prone, reluctant, but in vain’, Paradise Lost 1667. ‘Unwilling, averse’, a metaphorical extension which saw the light of day in Latin, made its debut in English at the start of the 18th century.
gorgon (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
late 14c., in Greek legend, any of the three hideous sisters, with writhing serpents for hair, whose look turned beholders to stone, from Greek Gorgones (plural; singular Gorgo) "the grim ones," from gorgos "terrible, fierce, grim," of unknown origin. Transferred sense of "terrifyingly ugly person" is from 1520s. Their names were Medusa, Euryale, and Stheino, but when only one is mentioned, Medusa usually is meant. Slain by Perseus, her head was fixed on the aegis of Athena.
torture (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
early 15c., "contortion, twisting, distortion; a disorder characterized by contortion," from Old French torture "infliction of great pain; great pain, agony" (12c.), and directly from Late Latin tortura "a twisting, writhing," in Medieval Latin "pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of punishment or persuasion," from stem of Latin torquere "to twist, turn, wind, wring, distort" (see torque (n.)). The meaning "infliction of severe bodily pain as a means of punishment or persuasion" in English is from 1550s. The theory behind judicial torture was that a guilty person could be made to confess, but an innocent one could not, by this means. Macaulay writes that it was last inflicted in England in May 1640.
writhe (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English wriðan (transitive) "to twist or bend," earlier "to bind or fetter," from Proto-Germanic *writhanan (cognates: North Frisian wrial, Old High German ridan, Old Norse riða, Middle Swedish vriþa, Middle Danish vride), from PIE *wreit- "to turn, bend" (see wreath). Intransitive, of the body or limbs, "move in a twisting or tortuous manner," from c. 1300. Related: Writhed; writhing.