millimeter

Etymology

It is borrowed from French millimètre,^[2][3][4][5] formed from French milli- + mètre, "a thousandth part of a metre".^[5][3] The prefix milli- comes from Latin mīlle (“thousand”),^[2][6] and the meter, as a unit of length, is mètre, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A unit of length, one thousandth of a metre: 1797 according to Merriam-Webster and the Historical Thesaurus,^[3][7] 1802 according to Etymonline;^[2] the first quotation in the 1989 edition of the OED, under millimetre, is from 1807.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English soon after the French metric system, whose meter Etymonline also dates to 1797.^[2] Webster (1828) still described it as a French measure of length, the smallest one.^[6] The meaning has not changed.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 1797 – one thousandth of a metre.^[3][7] Etymonline dates the word to 1802,^[2] the 1989 edition of the OED to 1807.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A metric unit of length equal to one thousandth of a meter, about 0.039 inch; abbreviated mm.^[3][9][10]

Word family

• submillimeter

Related words

• millimetre
• meter
• milli-
• centimeter
• kilometer
• mile
• million

Usage notes

The spelling millimeter is American.^[10][4] British usage writes millimetre.^[10][4][11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press