Etymology

aphylactic

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Today it means: Of a map projection: Neither conformal or equal-area. Full definition →

French aphylactique ← Ancient Greek φυλακτικός
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · borrowed fromφυλακτικός“serving to preserve”
  2. French · borrowed fromaphylactique
  3. English todayaphylactic

From French aphylactique, probably coined by Nicolas Auguste Tissot in his 1881 book Mémoire sur la réprésentation des surfaces et les projections des cartes géographiques (Treatise on surface representations and map projections). Ultimately from a- + Ancient Greek φυλακτικός (phulaktikós, “serving to preserve”) (see φύλαξις (phúlaxis)), since an aphylactic projection preserves neither angle nor area.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.