Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Tortuous or torturous?

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Tortuous or torturous? Tortuous: adjective - full of twists or turns; twisted, sinuousor winding; not direct or straightforward; devious, circuitous.
Torturous: adjective - characterized by or involving torture; tormenting,excruciating; figuratively - violently twisted or distorted; perverted.
The use of 'torturous' in place of'tortuous', although more common these days, is the result of amisunderstanding of the real meanings of these two words and should be avoided.
'Thedelta of the Mississippi is full of tortuous distributaries, carrying thewaters over the flat land to the sea.'
'Thetattoo on Jodisa's leg led a tortuous path from her ankle to the place all mendesired to enter.' (That's a reference to the epic fantasy I'm writing.)
'ForSandra, being with Michael was a torturous experience, making her wince withhis every advance and clumsy fumble.'
'Theinmates of the foreign prison were subject to torturous treatment, which leftmany of them unable to stand unaided.'
Atortuous experience winds around; a torturous one causes pain.
4 October 1911 If you usethe London Underground and travel via Earls Court, you might like to know thefirst escalator opened there and is now 100 years old. I suspect they'veupdated it since it was first installed, though.