square

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /skweə/, US /skwer/^[1]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English squire, square,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French esquire (“a square, squareness”), also esquarre,^[4][2] from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, a back-formation from *exquadrāre (“to square”),^[4][2] from ex- (“out”) and quadrāre (“to make square, set in order”),^[4] from quadrus (“a square”),^[4] related to quattuor (“four”),^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *kwetwer- (“four”).^[4] The adjective is from Old French esquarré, past participle of esquarrer “to square”, and the verb from esquarrer.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tool for measuring or setting out right angles, a carpenter's square: about 1250 in Barnhart^[2] and the mid-13th century in Etymonline;^[4] the OED's first example is from before 1300.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The noun came to mean a square shape or area by the late 14th century,^[4][2] and the geometric figure and the number multiplied by itself from 1557.^[6][2] A body of troops in square formation is from the 1590s.^[4] An open space in a town is from 1687,^[2] the 1680s in Etymonline,^[4] and in the US a block of buildings bounded by four streets by 1867.^[4] The tool gave the figurative sense of exactness and fairness: square, “honest, fair”, is by the 1560s,^[4] and is behind fair and square (early 17th century) and square deal.^[7] Square meal is by 1868, originally American.^[4] The sense “old-fashioned, conventional” is from 1944, in American jazz slang, said to come from a conductor's hand movements in a regular four-beat rhythm.^[4] Back to square one is from 1960, probably from board games.^[4] The verb meant first to make square, of stone (late 14th century), then to regulate by a standard (1530s) and to balance accounts (1815).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a carpenter's square.^[2]
• early 14th century – adjective, with four equal sides.^[4]
• late 14th century – verb, to make square.^[4]
• 1557 – square number; square root.^[6]
• 1560s – honest, fair.^[4]
• 1590s – a body of troops.^[4]
• 1687 – an open space in a town.^[2]
• 1868 – square meal.^[4]
• 1944 – old-fashioned, conventional.^[4]
• 1960 – square one.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A flat figure with four equal sides and four right angles.
2. An open space in a town, often with buildings on all sides.
3. A T-shaped or L-shaped tool for drawing or checking right angles.
4. (mathematics) The product of a number multiplied by itself.
5. (slang) A person thought dull and conventional.

Adjective

1. Having four equal sides and four right angles.
2. Of a unit of area: square metre.
3. Honest, fair: a square deal.
4. With nothing owed on either side; even.
5. (slang) Old-fashioned, conventional.

Verb

1. To make square or rectangular.
2. To multiply a number by itself.
3. To bring into agreement; to settle or balance: square an account.

Word family

• squarely
• squareness
• squarer
• squarable
• squarelike
• squarehead
• square-shouldered
• square-toed

Related words

• quadrant
• quarter
• squad
• squadron
• four
• cadre

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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press