circumference

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English circumference,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French circonference^{[4][5][6][7][8]} or directly borrowed from Latin circumferentia;^{[9][10][11][12]} Barnhart takes it from Latin, possibly under the influence of the French word,^[13] and Merriam-Webster from Middle French.^[14] The Latin noun is from circumferēns, the present participle of circumferō (“to carry around”), from circum (“around”) and ferō (“to carry, bear”),^{[10][4][12][13]} from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”).^[10][4] The literal Latin sense would have been "a bearing around", but the word arose as a loan translation of Ancient Greek περιφέρεια (periphéreia, “rotundity, outer surface, periphery”),^{[9][10][12][15]} a noun from περιφερής (peripherḗs, “turning round, surrounding”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The line that bounds something round, especially a circle: 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[9][13] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the geometrical line the word passed to the distance round a thing (1555)^[9] and to looser uses: an arc (1656), the surface of a round body (1615–1794), and the whole circle, in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), all now obsolete.^[9] More generally it meant a bound or enclosure, from Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (1602),^[9] and figuratively the outer edge as opposed to the centre (1605).^[9] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the periphery; the line including and surrounding any thing", quoting Milton's "This be thy just circumference, O world!"^[16] A verb circumference, to encompass, is recorded from 1646, in Sir T. Browne.^[9] In Australian slang of the early 20th century the circumference was the mouth.^[17]

Timeline

• 1393 – the boundary line of a round figure, especially a circle.^[9][13]
• before 1549 – a circuit, a roundabout course (obsolete by 1700).^[9]
• 1555 – the distance round something.^[9]
• 1602 – a bound or enclosure, in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.^[9]
• 1605 – figurative, the outer edge as opposed to the centre.^[9]
• 1615 – the surface of a round body (obsolete by 1794).^[9]
• 1646 – verb, to encompass.^[9]
• 1905 – Australian slang, the mouth.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The line that bounds a circle or other closed curve, or the length of this line, equal to pi times the diameter: She measured the circumference of the oak.^[14][8][9]
2. The outer edge or boundary of an area or of a rounded body; periphery.^[14][8][9]

Word family

• circumferential

Related words

• perimeter
• periphery
• bear
• circum-
• -ferous

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com