sphere

The story

1. Ancient Greekσφαῖρᾰ (sphaîră)
2. Latinsphaera
3. Late Latinsphēra
4. Old Frenchsphere
5. Middle Englishspere
6. English todaysphere

From Middle English spere, from Old French sphere, from Late Latin sphēra, earlier Latin sphaera (“ball, globe, celestial sphere”), from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “ball, globe”), of unknown origin. Not related to superficially similar Persian سپهر (sepehr, “sky”) . Displaced Old English cliewen, þoþor, and æppel.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 14th c. A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center. .
• from 14th c. An object which appears to be bounded by a sphere; a round object, a ball.
• from 14th c. The celestial sphere: the edge of the heavens, imagined as a hollow globe within which celestial bodies appear to be embedded.
• from 14th c. Any of the concentric hollow transparent globes formerly believed to rotate around the Earth, and which carried the heavenly bodies; there were originally believed to be eight, and later nine and ten; friction between them was thought to cause a harmonious sound (the music of the spheres).
• from 14th c. An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for a god, hero etc.
• from 17th c. The region in which something or someone is active; one's province, domain.
• from 20th c. The set of all points in three-dimensional Euclidean space (or n-dimensional space, in topology) that are a fixed distance from a fixed point .