pentagon

Forms

pentagon n (plural pentagoane)^[1] Older texts also have pentagonon and pendagon, and Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 lists the word as pentagonŭ.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French pentagone, borrowed from German Pentagon, borrowed from Latin pentagonus: DEX and the DLR name these three sources.^[4][2] MDA2 adds Modern Greek πεντάγωνον (pentágonon).^[5] The dictionaries of neologisms give French with Latin as a second source.^[6][7] The old variants with ⟨-on⟩ and ⟨nd⟩ come from the Modern Greek word.^[2]

The French word is a geometry term of the 13th century, taken from pentagonum, the neuter of the Latin adjective, which is from Ancient Greek πεντάγωνος (pentágōnos).^[8] Scriban analyses the Greek word as πέντε (pénte, “five”) and γωνία (gōnía, “corner, angle”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a 19th-century geometry manuscript of the Academia Mihăileană, where the regular five-angled figure is called pentagon.^[2][5] MDA2 prints 1814 for it, but that number is the manuscript's shelf mark in the Academy library, not a date.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its single geometrical sense, a plane figure with five sides and five angles; the DLR records the older native equivalent cinciunghi “five-angle”.^[2][4] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) already explains it as a figure with five angles and five sides.^[10] Marcu's dictionary of neologisms adds the proper name of the headquarters of the United States armed forces as a second sense.^[7]

Timeline

• 19th century – pentagon in a geometry manuscript of the Academia Mihăileană, the first record.^[2][5]
• 1848 – explained in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1870 – pentagonŭ in Costinescu's dictionary, also as an adjective.^[3]
• 1886 – pentagon with the plural pentagone and the German gloss Fünfeck in Barcianu.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pentagon: a plane polygon with five sides and five angles.^[4][5][6]

Related words

• French pentagone
• Ancient Greek πεντάγωνον (pentágonon)

Usage notes

Written with a capital, Pentagonul is the Pentagon, the Defense Department and general staff of the armed forces of the United States;^[7][1] Wiktionary takes this name from English Pentagon.^[7][1] The plural is pentagoane.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pentagon
3. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 273
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 799
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 338
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. pentagon
7. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. pentagon
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pentagone
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 961
10. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. pentagon
11. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 468