quadrangle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English quadrangle,^[2][3] partly borrowed from Old French quadrangle, recorded from the 13th century,^[4][5][6][2] and partly borrowed from Late Latin quadrangulum (“four-sided figure”),^[4][5][6][2] recorded from the 5th century.^[4] The Late Latin noun is the neuter of Latin quadrangulus (“having four corners”), also quadriangulus,^[4][6][3] formed from quadri- (“four”) and angulus (“angle, corner”),^[4][3][7] the source of angle.^[6][4] The first element goes back to quattuor (“four”), from Proto-Indo-European *kwetwer- (“four”).^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plane figure with four angles and four sides, especially a square or rectangle: before 1398, in J. Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed close to geometry at first, with specialist uses in palmistry, for a four-sided area of the palm (about 1450),^[4][2] and in alchemy, as an emblem of the four elements.^[2] The figure then gave its name to a place of that shape: a courtyard surrounded by buildings, about 1543 in the OED,^[4] though Barnhart and Etymonline first note it in the 1590s, in Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI.^[6][5] Johnson (1755) defines the word only as a square, yet quotes that same Shakespearean passage about walking "once about the quadrangle".^[9] The sense soon passed to the buildings themselves (1596).^[4] At Oxford, students cut the word down to quad by 1820.^[5] The cartographic sense, a tract of land shown on one sheet of a map series, is North American and recorded from 1897.^[4][10]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a plane figure with four angles and four sides.^[4][6]
• c. 1450 – in palmistry, a four-sided area of the palm.^[4]
• 1494 – adjective, quadrangular (obsolete by 1577).^[4]
• c. 1543 – a courtyard surrounded by buildings.^[4] Barnhart dates this sense to 1593.^[6]
• 1596 – a rectangular building or block of buildings.^[4]
• 1897 – in North America, a tract of land shown on one map sheet.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rectangular courtyard or open space with buildings on all or most sides, as in a college; a quad: The students crossed the quadrangle to the library.^[11][10][4]
2. The building or group of buildings around such a space, or any rectangular block of buildings.^[11][10][4]
3. (geometry) A plane figure with four angles and four sides; a quadrilateral, especially a square or rectangle.^[11][10][4]
4. (North America) A rectangular tract of land shown on one sheet of a survey map series.^[10][4]
5. (palmistry) A four-sided area on the palm of the hand.^[4][12][2]

Word family

• quadrangular
• quadrangled

Related words

• quad
• quadri-
• angle
• quadrant
• quadrilateral

Usage notes

A pronunciation with the main stress on the second syllable is given first by some sources until as late as the mid 20th century, and is still sometimes heard.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press