lengthwise

Etymology

It is formed from English length + -wise.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Etymonline takes the second part as the noun wise, way or manner, from Old English wīse, which has formed adverbs in this way since Old English.^[3] The OED compares lengthways (adverb from 1599), longwise and longstwise.^[2] Etymonline explains lengthways as length with way and the adverbial genitive -s.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the direction of the length, longitudinally: about 1565, in a translation of the play Bugbears.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1570s, Merriam-Webster Unabridged to about 1580, and Dictionary.com to 1570–80.^[3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the adverb as "according to the length", and in 1773 added "in a longitudinal direction".^[7] As a noun, the longest dimension of a thing, it is recorded from 1731, in Miller's Gardeners Dictionary, with the phrase the lengthwise of, along the length of.^[2] The OED, revised in 2026, finds the adjective in 1791,^[2] where Etymonline and the Historical Thesaurus date it to 1871 and the Shorter Oxford to the late 19th century.^[3][8][5]

Timeline

• c. 1565 – adverb, in the direction of the length.^[2][8]
• 1731 – noun, the longest dimension.^[2]
• 1791 – adjective, running along the length, longitudinal.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to 1871.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In the direction of the length; longitudinally: Cut the carrots lengthwise into thin strips.^[4][9][2]

Adjective

1. Running, placed or moving along the length or long axis: a lengthwise split in the board.^[4][9][2]

Related words

• length
• lengthways
• longwise
• long
• -wise

Usage notes

The joke that bureaucrats cut red tape lengthwise, that is, in the least efficient way, has been in print since at least 1961 and was popularised by James H. Boren by 1972.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ 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.
8. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Bureaucrats cut red tape—lengthwise", 17 August 2012