Etymology

cathetus

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Today it means: A line perpendicular to a surface (or line); in particular, either of the sides of a right triangle other than its hypotenuse. Full definition →

Latin cathetus ← Ancient Greek κάθετος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromκάθετος“perpendicular”
  2. Latin · derived fromcathetus
  3. English todaycathetus

From Latin cathetus, from Ancient Greek κάθετος (káthetos, “perpendicular”).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekκάθετος all →

kathetal

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.