English
triangle
Triangle comes from Latin triangulus ‘three-cornered, having three angles’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtriangulus‘three-cornered, having three angles’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtriangulum
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400triangle
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500triangle
- Englishearliest quotation 1851triangle
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtriangulus‘three-cornered, having three angles’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtriangulum
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400triangle
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500triangle
- Englishearliest quotation 1851triangle
Earliest quotation: 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor: “I was flogged in 1840. To this day I…”
A compound of trēs ‘three’ + angulus ‘corner, angle’
Proto-Indo-European *tréyes ‘three’
Proto-Italic *trejes
Proto-Italic *trēs ‘three’
Latin trēs ‘three’
Proto-Indo-European *h₂eng- ‘bend, curve’
Proto-Indo-European *h₂engulos ‘joint?’
Proto-Italic *angulos
Latin angulus ‘corner, angle’
Every English word from Latin triangulus
Today it means
noun A polygon with three sides and three angles.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin triangulus / triangle