Origin and history of torn

[fluid drop from the eye] Middle English ter, tere, from Old English tear, teor "tear, drop, nectar, what is distilled in drops," from earlier teahor, tæhher, from Proto-Germanic *tahr-, *tagr- (source also of Old Norse, Old Frisian tar, Old High German zahar, German Zähre, Gothic tagr "tear"), from PIE *dakru- (source also of Latin lacrima, Old Latin dacrima, Irish der, Welsh deigr, Greek dakryma).

Plural tears in the figurative sense of "grief, sorrow" is from mid-14c. To be in tears "weeping" is from 1550s. Figurative tears of blood "heartfelt tears of compassion" is by c. 1300. Tear gas is so called by 1917. Tear-stained "marked with tears" is from 1590s.