Etymologically
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cube

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Pronunciation

  • /kjuːb/, /kjub/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French cube or directly borrowed from Latin cubus,[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos, “a cube; a die for playing”).[3][5] The Greek word also meant a block, a cake, a vertebra and the hollow before the hip in cattle,[5][6] and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster connect it with hip.[2][6] Its origin is uncertain: Etymonline cites Beekes's remark that words for dice are often loans,[5] while Klein thought it probably Semitic, comparing Arabic كَعْب (kaʿb, “cube”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A regular solid with six equal square faces: 1551 according to Barnhart and Merriam-Webster, 1556 in Recorde's Castle of Knowledge according to the OED.[2][6][3] The word was used in its Latin form from the late 14th century.[5][8]

Semantic evolution

The arithmetical sense, the third power of a number, came almost at once (Recorde, 1557).[3][2] Etymonline notes that it was already present in Greek, where three dice were thrown and the best throw was three sixes.[5] From the 1620s the word was used of any cube-shaped block, such as sugar or tea.[3] The verb, to raise to the third power, is recorded from 1588;[3][2] to cut food into cubes is a 20th-century use (1947).[3][5] Because square was slang for a conventional person, cube was coined in 1959 for someone even more so.[3][5][9] An office cube (1937) is a shortening of cubicle.[3][10]

Timeline

  • late 14th century – used in the Latin form cubus.[5][8]
  • 1551 – a solid with six square faces.[2][6]
  • 1557 – the third power of a quantity.[3][2]
  • 1588 – verb: to raise to the third power.[3][2]
  • 1626 – a cube-shaped block of something.[3]
  • 1937 – a cubicle.[3]
  • 1947 – verb: to cut into cubes.[3][5]
  • 1959 – slang: an extremely conventional person.[3][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A solid with six equal square faces meeting at right angles.
  2. A block of something in roughly that shape: a cube of cheese.
  3. (mathematics) The third power of a number: the cube of 3 is 27.
  4. (informal) A cubicle in an open-plan office.

Verb

  1. To raise a number to the third power.
  2. To cut food into small cubes; to dice.
  3. To measure the cubic content of something.

Word family

  • cuber
  • cubic
  • cubical
  • cuboid
  • cubism
  • cubicle

Usage notes

The plant name cube or cubé, a South American shrub whose roots yield the insecticide rotenone, is unrelated: it is from American Spanish cubé (1924).[3][6][11]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press