Etymologically
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sphere

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /sfɪə/, US /sfɪr/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English spere, borrowed from Old French espere (modern French sphère), respelled after Latin from the mid-15th century,[2][3][4][5][6] from Latin sphaera (“globe, ball, celestial sphere”),[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “globe, ball”),[2][3][4] a word of unknown origin with no certain cognates outside Greek, according to Beekes.[3] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster link it, perhaps, with a verb meaning to quiver (see spurn).[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cosmos, space conceived as a hollow globe around the world: probably before 1300, as spere, in Arthour and Merlin;[2] about 1300 in Etymonline, before 1300 in the OED.[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Any of the concentric globes once thought to carry the stars and planets is from about 1374, and the music they made, the music of the spheres, from about 1381.[7][3] A planet's own sphere, its place, is from about 1385, in Chaucer,[2] which led to a person's province or domain.[4] The spelling sphere, influenced by Latin, is from before 1450.[2] The geometric solid is a sphere from 1602 in Merriam-Webster.[5] Spherical is from the 16th century and spheroid from the 17th.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – spere, the cosmos.[2]
  • c. 1374 – a celestial sphere.[7]
  • c. 1385 – a planet's sphere.[2]
  • before 1450 – the spelling sphere.[2]
  • 1602 – a geometric sphere.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (geometry) A solid or surface all of whose points are the same distance from a centre.
  2. Any round object; a ball or globe.
  3. A heavenly body, such as a planet or star.
  4. Any of the concentric globes once thought to carry the stars and planets.
  5. A field of activity or influence; a domain: sphere of influence.

Verb

  1. To form into a sphere, or to enclose in one.

Word family

  • sphericity
  • spheric
  • sphereless
  • spherelike
  • spherics
  • sphery
  • sphere of influence
  • -sphere
  • atmosphere
  • hemisphere
  • magnetosphere
  • planisphere
  • spherical
  • spheroid
  • spurn

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press