rhombus

The story

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromῥόμβος“rhombus, spinning top”
2. Latin · learned borrowing fromrhombus
3. English todayrhombus

Learned borrowing from Latin rhombus, from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos, “rhombus, spinning top”). Doublet of rhomb and rhumb.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 16th c. A parallelogram having all sides of equal length.
• from 16th c. The rhombus diamond, as one of the suits seen in a deck of playing cards ( or ).
• from 16th c. Any of several flatfishes, including the brill and turbot, once considered part of the genus Rhombus, now in Scophthalmus.