Etymologically
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circumference

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Pronunciation

  • /sɜːˈkʌmfɹəns/, /səˈkʌmfɹəns/[1]

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

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