ellipse
pronunciation
How to pronounce ellipse in British English:
UK [ɪˈlɪps]
How to pronounce ellipse in American English:
US [ɪˈlɪps]
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- Noun:
- a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it
Word Origin
- ellipse
- ellipse: [18] Greek élleipsis meant literally ‘defect, failure’. It was a derivative of elleípein, literally ‘leave in’, hence ‘leave behind, leave out, fall short, fail’, a compound verb formed from the prefix en- ‘in’ and leípein ‘leave’ (which is related to English loan and relinquish). It was borrowed into English in the 17th century as ellipsis in the grammatical sense ‘omission of a word or words’, but its mathematical use for an ‘oval’ (enshrined in the form ellipse, borrowed via French ellipse and Latin ellīpsis) comes from the notion that a square drawn on lines passing vertically and laterally through the centre of an ellipse ‘falls short’ of the entire length of the lateral line.=> loan, relinquish
- ellipse (n.)
- 1753, from French ellipse (17c.), from Latin ellipsis "ellipse," also, "a falling short, deficit," from Greek elleipsis (see ellipsis). So called because the conic section of the cutting plane makes a smaller angle with the base than does the side of the cone, hence, a "falling short." The Greek word was first applied by Apollonius of Perga (3c. B.C.E.). to the curve which previously had been called the section of the acute-angled cone, but the word earlier had been technically applied to a rectangle one of whose sides coincides with a part of a given line (Euclid, VI. 27).
Example
- 1. Another ellipse around the sun
- 2. The current national christmas tree was planted on the ellipse in 1978 .
- 3. Man is not a circle with a single centre ; he is an ellipse with a double focus .