Advertisement

Origin and history of vertical

vertical(adj.)

1550s, "of or at the vertex, situated at the highest point, directly overhead," from French vertical (1540s), from Late Latin verticalis "overhead," from Latin vertex (genitive verticis) "highest point" (see vertex).

The meaning "placed or directed straight up and down, being in a position or direction perpendicular to the horizon" is attested by 1704. As a noun meaning "the vertical position or line" from 1834. Related: Vertically; verticality.

vertical

also from 1550s

Entries linking to vertical

vertex(n.)

1560s, in geometry, "the point opposite the base of a figure," from Latin vertex (plural vertices) "highest point," literally "the turning point," originally "whirling column, whirlpool," from vertere "to turn" (from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend").

The meaning "point in the heavens directly overhead," also generally, "highest point" of anything is by 1640s. Vertex was used late 14c. in English medical writing as "top of the head." Also compare vortex.

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    upright
    Old English upriht "erect, face-upward;" see up (adv.) + right (adj.1). Similar compounds are found in other Germanic languages (Old Frisian upriucht, Middle Dutch oprecht, Old High German ufreht, German aufrecht, Old Norse uprettr). Figurative sense of "good, honest, adhering to
    perpendicular
    late 15c., perpendiculer, of a line, "lying at right angles to the horizon" (in astronomy, navigation, etc.), from an earlier adverb (late 14c.), "at right angles to the horizon," from Old French perpendiculer, from Late Latin perpendicularis "vertical, as a plumb line," from Lat
    bluff
    "broad, vertical cliff," 1680s, from bluff (adj.)...Apparently a North Sea nautical term for ships with broad bows and flat vertical stems....
    turbine
    Originally applied to a wheel spinning on a vertical axis driven by falling water, later of mechanisms driven by the flow...
    jigsaw
    also jig-saw, vertical reciprocating saw, 1855, American English, from jig with its notion of "rapid up-and-down motion"...
    gnomon
    "vertical shaft that tells time by the shadow it casts" (especially the triangular plate on a sundial), 1540s, from Latin...
    scantling
    1520s, "measured or prescribed size," altered (to conform to -ling words) from earlier scantlon, scantiloun, scantillon "dimension" (c. 1400), earlier a type of mason's rod for measuring thickness (c. 1300), a shortening of Old French escantillon (Modern French échantillon "sampl
    space
    c. 1300, "extent or area; room" (to do something), a shortening of Old French espace "period of time, distance, interval" (12c.), from Latin spatium "room, area, distance, stretch of time," a word of unknown origin (also source of Spanish espacio, Italian spazio). From early 14c.
    shaft
    "long, slender rod," originally "staff or pole forming the body of a spear or lance; spear-shaft," also, perhaps by synecdoche, "spear;" Middle English shafte, from Old English sceaft from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz (source also of Old Norse skapt, Old Saxon skaft, Old High German s

    Share vertical

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near vertical
    Advertisement