octagon

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ǵónu“knee”
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*oḱtṓw“eight”
3. Koine Greek · derived fromὀκτάγωνος“having eight corners”
4. Ancient Greek · derived fromὀκτάγωνον“octagon”
5. Latin · derived fromoctagōnon
6. English todayoctagon

From Latin octagōnon, octōgōnon (“octagon”), and from its etymon Ancient Greek ὀκτάγωνον (oktágōnon, “octagon”), probably from Koine Greek ὀκτάγωνος (oktágōnos, “having eight corners”) + -ον (-on, suffix forming nouns). ὀκτάγωνος is derived from ὀκτᾰ- (oktă-, prefix meaning ‘eight’) (from ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw (“eight”)) + γωνία (gōnía, “angle; corner”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵónu (“knee”)); analysable as octa- + -gon. The English word is cognate with Middle French octogone (modern French octogone), Italian octagono (obsolete), ottagono, Spanish octágono, octógono. Sense 2 (“arena for mixed martial arts”) refers to its shape.

Words from the same roots