parallelus

Forms

parallēlus (feminine parallēla, neuter parallēlum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παράλληλος (parállēlos, “parallel”),^[2][3][1] which Etymonline traces to the phrase “beside one another”, from παρα- (para-, “beside”) and ἀλλήλων (allḗlōn, “one another”).^[4][1] Latin also used the Greek form, ⟨parallēlos⟩ (neuter ⟨parallēlon⟩).^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius (c. 84–c. 25 BC)^[6] has it in his work on architecture, speaking of a parallel line, parallelos linea.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder notes that Latin writers called by the name circuli what the Greeks called paralleli, the circles of the celestial globe that mark the parallels of latitude;^[2][5] Macrobius speaks of paralleli circuli, and Boethius of parallelae lineae.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it also means similar.^[7]

Through French and directly from Latin it gave the English word parallel, first used of lines in geometry in the 1540s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius speaks of a parallel line.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses paralleli for the parallel circles of the celestial globe.^[2][5][6]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius writes of paralleli circuli.^[3][6]
• 1540s – English borrows it, through French and directly, as parallel in geometry.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Parallel, running side by side at the same distance.^[2][3][5]
2. (of circles on the globe; also as a masculine plural noun) Concentric, forming the parallels of latitude.^[2][5][1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Similar.^[7]

Related words

• English parallel

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson