hexagon

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin hexagōnum,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek ἑξάγωνον (hexágōnon),^[2][1][7] the neuter of ἑξάγωνος (hexágōnos, “six-cornered”),^[2][3][7] formed from ἕξ (héx, “six”) and -γωνος (-gōnos, “-cornered, -angled”), from the stem of γωνία (gōnía, “angle, corner”).^[2][7][5] Barnhart thinks it may have come through Middle French hexagone,^[8] and Johnson derived it from French hexagone;^[9] the OED compares the French word.^[2] Etymonline traces the Greek word for angle to the root Proto-Indo-European *genu- (“knee; angle”),^[3] and Skeat relates it to the Greek word for knee and so to knee.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plane figure with six sides and six angles: 1570, in Billingsley's translation of Euclid's Elements.^[2][8][7] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its geometrical sense, applied loosely to solid bodies with a six-sided section.^[2] In fortification it was used from 1669 for a fort with six bastions.^[2] From 1754 it was used attributively, like the adjective hexagonal, which Barnhart dates to 1571.^[2][8] Johnson (1755) remarked that the hexagon is the most capacious figure that can be fitted together without gaps, which is why the cells of honeycombs have that shape.^[9]

Timeline

• 1570 – a plane figure with six sides and six angles.^[2][8][7]
• 1669 – in fortification, a fort with six bastions.^[2]
• 1754 – attributively, hexagonal.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A polygon with six sides and six angles: The floor was laid with tiles in the shape of hexagons.^[11][7][2]
2. An object with that shape.^[7][2]

Word family

• flexagon
• hexagonal

Related words

• hexagram
• hexa-
• -gon
• pentagon
• octagon
• knee

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins