helix

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin helix (“a spiral; a volute in architecture”),^[2][3][4][5] which is from Ancient Greek ἕλιξ (hélix, “anything of spiral form”), genitive ἕλικος (hélikos).^[2][3][4] The Greek word was used of an armlet, a curl of hair, the tendril of a vine and a serpent's coil.^[3] It is related to ἑλίσσω (helíssō, “to turn about, wind, roll”),^[6][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, roll”);^[9][6][10] Etymonline cites Watkins for a suffixed form Proto-Indo-European *wel-ik-.^[3] Johnson gave French hélice beside the Greek,^[11] and Weekley compares the same French word, which also means a ship's screw.^[12] The snail genus took the name through New Latin.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spiral ornament in architecture, a volute, especially one of the eight small volutes under the abacus of a Corinthian capital: 1563, in J. Shute's First Groundes of Architecture.^{[2][3][14][13]} Dictionary.com dates the word to 1555–65.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the architectural ornament the word widened to anything of spiral or coiled form, flat like a watch-spring or advancing round an axis like a corkscrew, recorded from 1643 in Sir T. Browne's Religio Medici.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a spiral line; a circumvolution", quoting Wilkins on the screw.^[11] Anatomists used it from 1684 for the curved rim of the outer ear,^[2] and zoologists from 1820 for a genus of snails with spiral shells.^[2][13] In geometry a helix is a curve lying on a cylinder or cone at a constant angle.^[10][15][13] The double helix, two helices wound round a common axis, was proposed as the structure of DNA by Crick and Watson in 1954.^[2][13][10] The classical plural is helices.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1563 – a spiral ornament or volute in architecture.^[2][3]
• 1643 – anything of spiral or coiled form.^[2]
• 1684 – the rim of the outer ear.^[2]
• 1820 – a genus of snails with spiral shells.^[2]
• 1954 – double helix, the structure of the DNA molecule.^[2][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spiral form or structure, such as a coil or a corkscrew: The staircase rose in a tight helix.^[10][15][13]
2. (mathematics) A three-dimensional curve lying on a cylinder or cone and cutting its elements at a constant angle.^[10][15][13]
3. (anatomy) The folded rim of skin and cartilage around the outer ear.^{[10][15][13][2]}
4. (architecture) A volute on a Corinthian or Ionic capital.^{[10][15][13][2]}
5. (zoology) A genus of land snails with coiled shells, including the edible snail.^[13][2]
6. A coil made by winding wire around a tube.^[13]

Word family

• antihelix
• helical
• superhelix
• alpha helix
• double helix

Related words

• helicopter
• volute
• helminth
• Helicon

Usage notes

The plural is helices or helixes.^[10][15][13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins