The expression “another turn of the nut” is frequently used in Spanish, although not everyone may use it with its original meaning. The phrase is forcing a situation, coercing or threatening or, as defined in María Moliner’s Dictionary of Spanish Use, “action with which someone is forced to act in a certain way”.
Somewhat more exhaustive is the explanation given by Alberto Buitrago in his Diccionario de dichos y frases idiomas: another turn of the screw or giving another turn of the screw is “forcing a situation as much as possible, with the consequent danger that additional problems may occur, just as What happens when, in an effort to tighten a nut as much as possible, we go too far and render the mechanism useless”.
So, figuratively giving another twist does not mean revising or rethinking something, that is, giving something another twist. Nor should it be used to express a plot twist in a movie or novel plot, the so-called plot twist in English.
The exact origin of the expression is unknown. To begin with, because screw tools are very old (Archimedes developed the principle of the screw in the 3rd century BC). However, there are authors who point out that “another twist” may have originated during the Middle Ages with the invention of instruments of torture with mechanisms of nuts and bolts such as the thumbscrew. Also known as thumbcrushing, this method of punishment consisted of inserting the tortured person’s fingers into a small mechanism equipped with a crank that turned a nut on a screw that tightened the person’s member more and more. The more the nut was tightened, the more pain was administered.
Others, on the other hand, point to the Industrial Revolution to locate the origin of the expression. It was then that fasteners proved to be fundamental to engineering and construction, and the danger of overtightening nuts was proven.
The phrase surely became popular in Spain from 1989 following the publication of the novel The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, translated into Spanish as Another Turn of the Nut and considered the pinnacle of the horror genre and modern literature. .
It should be remembered that in 2016, coinciding with the centenary of the author, the Libros del Asteroid publishing house published a new translation of the book in which the title was changed, becoming La vuelta del lathe. As the publisher explained, the literal translation of The Turn of the Screw would be La vuelta del tornillo, a title never used but, unlike Another Turn of the Screw, it would retain part of the sexual connotation -repressed in England at the time. – which can be guessed in the original title. The adjective other is an addition for which the new translators find no justification, although it has its defenders in those who appreciate in it a repetitive and emphatic character that is very appropriate to the case. The meaning of the English title clearly has to do with violence, screw would mean both extortionist and extortion or apply violence to something or someone. Both senses can hardly be transmitted by a nut, but a lathe or torture rack can.
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