1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Torque

TORQUE, or Torc (Lat. torquis, torques, a twisted collar, torquere, to twist), the term given by archaeologists to the twisted collars or armlets of gold or other metal worn particularly by the ancient Gauls and other allied Celtic races. The typical torque is a circlet with twisted rope-like strands, the ends not joined together; the torque was usually worn with the opening in the front as seen in a figure of a Gaul in a sculptured sarcophagus in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. In mechanics, the term “ torque ” is used of the turning-moment of a system force, as in a series dynamo.