Torrent comes from French torrent, from Latin torrēns ('rushing stream', literally 'burning, boiling'), the present participle of torrēre ('to parch, burn'). The historical chain includes Latin torrēns, Latin torrēre, and Proto-Indo-European *ters-. The quoted older senses, "rushing stream", "burning, boiling", and "to parch, burn", supply the semantic anchors for torrent. The formation is best read as participial and borrowed: the word torrent carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a strong, fast-moving stream of water or other liquid". English derivatives include torrential and torrentially; related English forms include torrid. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.