proportionalis

Forms

prōportiōnālis (neuter prōportiōnāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prōportiō (“proportion”) + -ālis.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Augustine (354–430) uses it in the City of God of a proportional ratio: ut proportionali ratione librata medietas neque sustollatur in summa, neque in infima deprimatur (“so that the middle, balanced by a proportional ratio, is neither raised to the top nor pressed down to the bottom”).^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The Roman land surveyors speak of prōportiōnālēs terminī, the boundary stones of private estates.^[3][4] Boethius uses it in arithmetic,^[2][3] and Cassiodorus has the adverb prōportiōnāliter.^[4]

Medieval Latin used it in arithmetic and geometry for proportional numbers and sides, and more widely for anything in due proportion in number, size or amount;^[6] Matthew Paris describes a small man who was not a dwarf, since his limbs were in proportion.^[6] English took it in the late 14th century as proportional, partly through Old French.^[7]

Timeline

• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in the City of God of a proportional ratio.^[2][3][5]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus has the adverb prōportiōnāliter in his work on geometry.^[4][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows it, partly through Old French, as proportional.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to proportion, proportional.^[4][3][2]
2. (surveying) prōportiōnālēs terminī: the boundary stones of private estates.^[3][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) In due proportion, proportionate in number, size or amount; in arithmetic and geometry, proportional.^[6]

Word family

• proportionalitas

Related words

• English proportional

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com