angularis

Forms

angulāris (neuter angulāre); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin angulus (“corner, angle”) + -āris.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato asks for pillars ex lapide angulārī in his work on farming;^[2][4][5] the OLD takes this as stone placed at the corners, Lewis & Short as squared stone.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius uses it of corner columns, which he says must be made thicker, and of corner pillars.^[3][4] Land surveyors use it of fields with corners.^[2] In the cookery book of Apicius angulāris alone is a square dish.^[4][6]

In the Vulgate the lapis angulāris is the cornerstone, and in the prophets and the letters of the New Testament it becomes a figure of Christ;^[4] the Vulgate also has angulāria for a carpenter's square.^[6] Medieval writers kept both uses: the Law of the Bavarians speaks of a corner post of a house,^[7] charters of boundary marks at corners,^[7] and Christian writers of Christ as the cornerstone.^[7] English took angular in the 1590s, and earlier in an astrological sense.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of stone for pillars.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of corner columns.^[3][5]
• 4th century AD – The cookery book of Apicius uses it of a square dish.^[4][6][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate calls Christ the lapis angulāris.^[4][5]
• 1590s – English borrows angular.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Placed at a corner, corner-: lapis angulāris “cornerstone”.^[2][4]
2. Having angles or corners, angular.^[2][4]

Noun

1. A square dish.^[4][6]
2. (plural, angulāria) A carpenter's square.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com