vertex

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vertex (“whirl, whirlpool; crown of the head; highest point”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from vertō (“to turn”),^[2][3][5][7] so that its first sense was "that which turns", a whirling column or eddy.^[3][7] The American Heritage Dictionary explains the crown of the head as the place where the hair forms a whorl.^[4] The Latin verb comes from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”),^[3][4] and Barnhart lists as cognates Lithuanian versti (“to turn”) and the Germanic verb for "to become": Old English weorþan, Dutch worden and German werden.^[5] Vortex comes from a variant of the same Latin noun.^[8][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The top of the head: Etymonline finds the word in English medical writing in the late 14th century,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster date this anatomical sense to late Middle English and the 14th century.^[9][8] The OED's first record is the geometrical sense, the point opposite the base of a figure, in John Dee's preface to Billingsley's Euclid (1570).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word had already moved from "whirl" to "crown of the head" and "highest point", and English took over these senses one by one.^[3][5] After the geometrical sense of 1570, the word was used from 1641 for the top or summit of anything, such as a hill or an arch,^[2][5] and since 1646 for the point of the heavens directly overhead, the zenith.^[2][3] The OED records the anatomical sense from 1634, and Barnhart from 1638.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) gave "zenith" and "a top of a hill" as its senses.^[10] Specialized senses followed in optics (1704), entomology (1826) and astronomy (1877), and since 1931 the word was used in mathematics for a junction of lines in a network or graph.^[2]

Timeline

• late 14th century – the top of the head, in medical writing.^[3][9][8]
• 1570 – in geometry, the point opposite the base of a figure.^[2][5]
• 1634 – in anatomy, the crown of the head.^[2]
• 1641 – the top or summit of something.^[2][5]
• 1646 – the zenith.^[2][3]
• 1704 – in optics, the point where the axis meets the surface of a lens.^[2][9]
• 1931 – a junction of lines in a network or graph.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The highest point of something; the summit or top.^[11][8][2]
2. (mathematics) The point of a figure opposite its base, as of a triangle or cone.^[11][8][2]
3. (mathematics) The point where two sides of an angle or a figure meet, or where the axis of a curve meets the curve.^[11][8][2]
4. (mathematics) A point where lines meet in a graph or network; a node.^[2]
5. (anatomy) The crown or top of the head.^[11][8][2]
6. (astronomy) The point in the sky towards which a stream of stars appears to move.^[11][9]
7. (archaic) The zenith.^[2][10]

Related words

• vertical
• vortex
• verse
• version
• worth

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 g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins