Etymologically
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rectangular

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɹɛkˈtæŋɡjʊlə/[1]
  • US: /ɹɛkˈtæŋɡjəlɚ/[1]

Etymology

The OED takes it as from Medieval Latin rectangulum (“rectangle”) with the English suffix -ar, on the model of rectangle;[2] Merriam-Webster likewise derives it from rectangulus (“having a right angle”).[3] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford see the influence of Middle French rectangulaire, recorded in 1571,[4][5][2] and Johnson gave the French word as its source.[6] The OED also compares rectangularis, recorded by 1634.[2] The Latin word is an alteration of rectiangulus (“right-angled”), recorded from the 6th century,[2] from Latin rēctus (“straight, right”) and angulus (“angle”),[2][7] and Etymonline traces rēctus to Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Shaped like a rectangle, with four sides and four right angles, and of a solid body, having rectangular sides or section: before about 1560, in Leonard Digges's Pantometria, printed in 1571.[2] Merriam-Webster dates its first use to about 1560,[3] but Etymonline, Dictionary.com and the Shorter Oxford date the word only to the early 17th century.[4][8][5]

Semantic evolution

In mathematics it was used from 1624 of a right-angled triangle, a sense now covered by right-angled.[2] From 1646 it also meant placed or lying at right angles,[2][5] and since 1703 it has meant having parts or lines at right angles to one another.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "right angled; having angles of ninety degrees".[6] A figurative use for "formal, stiff" is recorded only from 1826 to 1842.[2] Etymonline notes that it outlived rivals such as rectangulous, recorded in the 1610s.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1560 – shaped like a rectangle; of a solid, with rectangular faces or section.[2][3]
  • 1624 – of a triangle, right-angled.[2]
  • 1646 – placed at right angles.[2][5]
  • 1703 – with parts or lines at right angles to each other.[2]
  • 1826 – figurative, formal, stiff (to 1842).[2]
  • 1837 – in crystallography, orthorhombic (now rare).[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Shaped like a rectangle: a rectangular lawn.[9][3][2]
  2. Of a solid, having faces, edges or a cross-section that meet at right angles or are rectangles: rectangular blocks of stone.[3][2][9]
  3. Crossing, lying or meeting at right angles; perpendicular: rectangular coordinates.[9][3][2]

Word family

  • rectangularity
  • rectangularly
  • unrectangular
  • nonrectangular
  • subrectangular
  • rectangular coordinates
  • rectangle
  • angular
  • angle
  • right

References

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