Etymologically
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oblique

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /əˈbliːk/[1]
  • US: /oʊˈbliːk/, /ɑbˈlaɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English oblique, also oblike,[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French oblique (“slanting; indirect”), recorded in Old French as oblike from the 13th century, and directly borrowed from Latin oblīquus (“slanting, sidelong, indirect”).[5][6][2][3] The Latin adjective is formed from ob- and a second element of uncertain origin.[7][8][9] The OED takes that element as probably related to līmus (“transverse, oblique”);[5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare liquis (“oblique”),[2][4] and Klein derives liquus (“sloping”) from Proto-Indo-European *leiq-, an extension of *lēi- (“to bend, be movable”).[3] Etymonline gives a derivation from the root of licinus (“bent upward”), but quotes de Vaan, for whom the etymology is unknown and a root *lī- with two different suffixes makes little sense.[6] The grammatical sense follows Latin cāsus oblīquus, and “oblique speech” follows New Latin ōrātiō oblīqua.[5] The verb is from the adjective,[5] and in its military sense is borrowed from French obliquer (“to march in an oblique direction”), from Latin oblīquō (“to bend aside, turn aside”).[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Slanting, not vertical or horizontal: about 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, of muscles or the eyes.[5][2][6] The figurative sense "indirect" is in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon made about the same time.[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

From the physical sense of slanting came technical uses in astronomy (1503), geometry (about 1560, in Digges), anatomy (1578, of muscles such as those of the eye and abdomen) and botany (1760, of a leaf with unequal sides).[5] The figurative line runs from "indirect, not going straight to the point" in the 15th century to "perverse, morally aberrant", recorded from 1576 to 1837.[5] In grammar an oblique case is any case but the nominative or vocative (1530, in Palsgrave), after Latin usage.[5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "not direct; not perpendicular; not parallel".[10] As a noun, Etymonline records the oblique muscle by 1838.[6] The verb, used of setting something at a slant from about 1425 to 1827, was revived in 1787 for troops advancing at an angle, and in 1986 in computing, for slanting a font.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – slanting, diverging from a straight line.[5][2]
  • c. 1425 – verb, to turn or set at a slant (obsolete after 1827).[5]
  • c. 1475 – indirect, not going straight to the point.[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the early 15th century.[6]
  • 1503 – in astronomy.[5]
  • 1530 – grammar, of a case other than the nominative or vocative.[5]
  • c. 1560 – geometry, of a line or angle that is not a right angle.[5]
  • 1576 – perverse, aberrant (obsolete after 1837).[5]
  • 1578 – anatomy, of certain muscles.[5]
  • 1787 – verb, military, to advance at an angle.[5][4]
  • 1860 – of speech, reported or indirect.[5]
  • 1986 – verb, computing, to slant a font.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Slanting or sloping; neither vertical nor horizontal: The path crossed the slope at an oblique angle.[8][4][5]
  2. (geometry) Of lines or planes, neither perpendicular nor parallel; of an angle, not a right angle.[8][5][4]
  3. Not straightforward; indirect or evasive: He made an oblique reference to the scandal.[8][4][5]
  4. (grammar) Of a case, other than the nominative and vocative.[8][5]
  5. (anatomy) Of certain muscles, running at a slant to the main axis of the body or a part.[5][4]
  6. (botany) Of a leaf, having unequal sides.[8][5]

Noun

  1. An oblique thing, such as a line.[4]
  2. An oblique muscle, especially of the abdomen.[4][6]

Verb

  1. (military) To march or advance at an angle to the original front.[4][5][7]

Word family

  • obliquely
  • obliqueness
  • suboblique
  • obliquity
  • oblique angle
  • oblique case
  • oblique motion

Usage notes

A pronunciation rhyming with like was noted in the 16th and 17th centuries, was the only one Walker gave (1806), and is now associated with military usage, especially in the United States;[5] Merriam-Webster gives it as the usual military pronunciation.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.