oblongus

Forms

oblongus (feminine oblonga, neuter oblongum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ob- + longus (“long”).^[2][3][4] Etymonline takes the prefix here as perhaps intensive.^[5] longus goes back to Proto-Italic *(d)longo- and Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰ-o-.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first example is in Plautus' Mercator, in a description of a person with dark eyes and longish cheeks.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense is longer than broad: Varro uses it of a stone table, Sallust of the oblong huts of Numidian peasants, Livy of a city of oblong shape, and Celsus, Columella, Pliny the Elder and Tacitus of lint, knives, seeds and dishes.^[2] Vitruvius has the comparative oblongior.^[2][7] Lewis and Short give the sense rather long, longish, and note that it is not in Cicero or Caesar.^[7] English took it over in the early 15th century as oblong.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of cheeks.^[2][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a stone table.^[2][4]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of Numidian huts.^[2]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses the comparative oblongior.^[2]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as oblong.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Longer than broad, oblong, elongated.^[2][3]
2. Rather long, longish.^[7][1]

Word family

• oblongulus

Related words

• longus
• English oblong

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press