perpendiculaire

Forms

perpendiculaire (plural perpendiculaires)^[1] Middle French perpendiculer (about 1380) and perpendiculier (1390), before the modern form of the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin perpendiculāris (“perpendicular”), borrowed twice: in the 14th century with a frenchified suffix, as perpendiculer, and in the 16th century with the learned suffix of the modern form.^[3][2][4] The Latin adjective is derived from perpendiculum (“plumb line”), from perpendō (“to weigh carefully, assess”), formed with per-.^[3][2][5] Littré explains the sense by the plumb line, which, left to hang freely, always takes a vertical direction.^[6] Picoche places the word in the family of pendre.^[7]

From the same Latin noun Middle French had perpendicle (“mason's plumb line”) (late 14th century) and perpendicule (“plumb line; perpendicular line”) (16th century).^[3][2][8]

Cognate with Occitan perpendicular, Spanish perpendicular and Italian perpendicolare.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found at the end of the 14th century as perpendiculer, meaning “vertical”, in the glossary Aalma.^[3][2] A 15th-century manuscript of Évrart de Conty's Problèmes d'Aristote has ligne perpendiculaire.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “vertical, plumb”, has become dated or literary, and in modern use it is sometimes felt to be a misuse.^[3][2][9] The geometric sense, “meeting a line or plane at a right angle”, dates from Descartes' Dioptrique (1637),^[3][2] and the feminine noun une perpendiculaire, a perpendicular line, was already used by the architect Philibert de l'Orme in 1567.^[3][2]

In palaeography écriture perpendiculaire is writing set in vertical lines, as in Chinese.^[6][3] Under the influence of the English word perpendicular, perpendiculaire became, from 1850, a term for the last phase of English Gothic architecture, marked by straight vertical and horizontal lines;^[2][3][10] style perpendiculaire is recorded in 1882.^[2][3][10]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – Perpendiculer “vertical” appears in the Aalma.^[3][2]
• 1390 – The form perpendiculier is recorded.^[2]
• 15th century – Ligne perpendiculaire in a manuscript of Évrart de Conty.^[3]
• 1509 – The adverb perpendiculairement is found, before the adjective itself.^[3][2]
• 1520 – Perpendiculaire “vertical” in Estienne de La Roche's Larismethique.^[3][5]
• 1567 – Philibert de l'Orme uses the noun for a perpendicular line.^[3][2]
• 1575 – Perpendicularité appears in Thevet's Cosmographie.^[3]
• 1637 – Descartes uses the geometric sense.^[3][2]
• 1842 – Écriture perpendiculaire is recorded in the Académie's Complément.^[3]
• 1850 – Mérimée uses it of English Gothic architecture.^[3][2]
• 1882 – Style perpendiculaire is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (geometry) Forming a right angle with a line or a plane: perpendiculaire à.^[9][10][3] Cette allée est perpendiculaire à la route.^[9]
2. (dated or literary) vertical, plumb.^[9][3]
3. Écriture perpendiculaire: writing set in vertical lines.^[9][6]
4. Style perpendiculaire (architecture): the last phase of English Gothic architecture, from the 14th century.^[10][2]

Noun

1. (feminine, geometry) A perpendicular line.^[9][10] Abaisser une perpendiculaire, to drop a perpendicular onto a line or plane.^[9][4][10]

Word family

• perpendiculairement
• perpendicularité

Related words

• pendre
• Latin perpendiculum
• English perpendicular

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)