Etymologically
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cone

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkəʊn/ (UK); /ˈkoʊn/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French cône or Latin cōnus (“cone, peak of a helmet”),[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek κῶνος (kônos, “pine cone, spinning top, cone”).[2][5][6] Klein and Merriam-Webster connect it with hone and Latin cōs (“whetstone”), from a root meaning sharp,[6][7][4] which Etymonline gives as only a possibility.[5] Middle English already had cone, the corner of a quadrant (about 1400).[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cone-shaped fruit of pines and firs: 1562, in William Turner's Herball.[2][3] The Middle English geometrical cone, the angle of a quadrant, is from about 1400.[8]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the Greek word first meant a pine cone, whose shape suggested the geometrical figure.[9] In English the geometrical solid is from 1570, in Billingsley's translation of Euclid,[2][3] and a conical mass of any substance from 1585.[2] Later uses include a cone-shaped shell (1770),[2] an alluvial fan (1864),[2] and the ice-cream cone (originally American, 1920).[2] The verb is from the late 15th century.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – cone, the corner of a quadrant.[8]
  • 1562 – the fruit of a pine or fir.[2][3]
  • 1570 – the geometrical figure, and conic.[2][3]
  • 1585 – a conical mass.[2]
  • 1770 – a cone shell.[2]
  • 1920 – an ice-cream cone.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A solid figure with a circular base that tapers to a point.
  2. The cone-shaped fruit of a conifer, made of woody scales holding the seeds.
  3. Anything shaped like a cone, such as a wafer holding ice cream.

Verb

  1. To shape like a cone.

Word family

  • coneflower
  • conehead
  • bicone
  • conenose
  • conoid
  • pinecone
  • conic
  • cinder cone
  • conifer
  • hone

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press