hyperbolic

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin hyperbolicus,^[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek ὑπερβολικός (huperbolikós, “extravagant, excessive”);^[5][4][2] the OED takes it directly from the Greek.^[5] The Greek adjective is from ὑπερβολή (huperbolḗ, “excess, exaggeration; a throwing beyond”), the source of hyperbole,^[5][4][3] from ὑπερβάλλω (huperbállō, “to throw over or beyond, exceed”), from ὑπέρ (hupér, “over, beyond”) and βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).^[5][6] In its mathematical sense the OED treats it as the adjective of hyperbola,^[5] which is the same Greek noun in a Modern Latin form;^[5][4] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster describe this use as formed anew from hyperbola with -ic.^[4][2][7] French hyperbolique has both senses.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of hyperbole, exaggerated: 1646, in a letter of King Charles I to A. Henderson.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Greek huperbolḗ, "a throwing beyond, excess", gave two technical terms.^[5][6] In rhetoric, from Isocrates and Aristotle on, it meant exaggeration;^[5][4] in geometry Apollonius of Perga in the 3rd century BC applied it to the curve now called the hyperbola, because a figure constructed on it "exceeds" the base it is applied to.^[6][5] English borrowed the rhetorical adjective first, as iperbolicalle, modern hyperbolical, from before 1475,^[2][5] and used hyperbolical in geometry from 1571.^[5] The shorter hyperbolic appeared in the rhetorical sense in 1646 and in the geometrical one in 1676, in a letter of E. Halley.^[5][2][4] From 1704 it was applied to functions and operations related to the hyperbola,^[5] and later to a geometry in which more than one line parallel to a given line passes through a point.^[2] The mathematical sense was not a development of the rhetorical one: both go back separately to the Greek noun.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1646 – in rhetoric, exaggerated, of the nature of hyperbole.^[5][4]
• 1676 – in geometry, of or like a hyperbola.^[5][2][4]
• 1704 – of functions and operations related to the hyperbola.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, using or given to hyperbole; exaggerated: The review was full of hyperbolic praise.^[8][2][5]
2. Of, relating to or shaped like a hyperbola.^[8][2][5]
3. Of a function or operation related to the hyperbola, such as the hyperbolic cosine.^[3][5]
4. Of a space or geometry in which more than one line parallel to a given line passes through a point not on it: hyperbolic geometry.^[2]

Word family

• hyperbolically
• nonhyperbolic
• hyperbolic function
• hyperbolic geometry
• hyperbolic paraboloid

Related words

• hyperbole
• hyperbola
• hyperbolical
• parabola
• ellipse
• ballistic
• hyper-

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins