rhombus

Forms

rhombus m (genitive rhombī); second declension^[1] Georges also records the spellings rhombos, rombos and rumbus.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos, “circular movement, spinning top, magic wheel; rhombus; turbot”).^[3][4][5] The Greek noun is an ablaut form beside ῥέμβομαι (rhémbomai, “to wander, roam about”), and already had the senses of a magic wheel, the geometrical figure and a flatfish.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Horace and Propertius have it in the 1st century BC.^[3][2] Horace uses it for the turbot, a flatfish, and Propertius for the whirring instrument of magic: deficiunt magico torti sub carmine rhombi “the wheels spun to the magic spell fail”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical poetry it is either the magic wheel or top, usually lozenge-shaped, whirled on a string in spells,^[3][7] or the turbot.^[3][7] Martianus Capella and the land surveyors use it for the geometrical figure, an oblique square.^[2][6][8]

In British Medieval Latin it remained the geometrical figure and the turbot, and was also applied to the sturgeon.^[9][1] English took the geometric sense from Late Latin as rhombus in the 1560s, and as rhomb through French.^[10] Italian rombo comes from it.^[6]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace, in the Satires and Epodes, names the turbot.^[3][11]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it for the magic wheel.^[3][11]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial mentions the magic wheel.^[7][11]
• 1560s – English borrows the geometrical sense as rhombus.^[10]
• 1570s – English rhomb appears, through French.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A magic wheel or top, usually lozenge-shaped, whirled on a string to make a whirring noise in spells.^[3][7][6]
2. A lozenge-shaped flatfish, the turbot.^[3][7]
3. (geometry) A rhombus, an oblique square.^[2][8][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) The sturgeon.^[9][1]

Related words

• English rhombus
• English rhomb

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de