The story
- Latin · derived fromrhomb(us)
- New Latin · learned borrowing fromrhombicosidodecaēdron
- English todayrhombicosidodecahedron
Learned borrowing from New Latin rhombicosidodecaēdron (coined by the German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) in his work Harmonices Mundi Libri V (The Harmony of the World in Five Books, 1619)), a blend of Latin rhomb(us) + īcos(aedron) + -i- + dodecaēdron. The English word is analysable as a blend of rhomb(ic) + icosidodecahedron, referring to the fact that the 30 square faces lie in the same planes as the 30 rhombic faces of the rhombic triacontahedron, which is dual to the icosidodecahedron.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.