angle

angle
\ \ There have been two distinct words angle in English. The older is now encountered virtually only in its derivatives, angler and angling, but until the early 19th century an angle was a ‘fishing hook’ (or, by extension, ‘fishing tackle’). It entered the language in the Old English period, and was based on Germanic *angg- (source also of German angel ‘fishing tackle’). An earlier form of the word appears to have been applied by its former inhabitants to a fishhook-shaped area of Schleswig, in the Jutland peninsula; now Angeln, they called it Angul, and so they themselves came to be referred to as Angles. They brought their words with them to England, of course, and so both the country and the language, English, now contain a reminiscence of their fishhooks. Angle in the sense of a ‘figure formed by two intersecting lines’ entered the language in the 14th century (Chaucer is its first recorded user).
\ \ It came from Latin angulus ‘corner’, either directly or via French angle. The Latin word was originally a diminutive of *angus, which is related to other words that contain the notion of ‘bending’, such as Greek ágkūra (ultimate source of English anchor) and English ankle.
\ \ They all go back to Indo-European *angg- ‘bent’, and it has been speculated that the fishhook angle, with its temptingly bent shape, may derive from the same source.
\ \ Cf.⇒ ENGLISH; ANCHOR, ANKLE

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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Synonyms:
(of two lines), , , / , , , , , , (where two lines meet) / , , (with a rod),


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  • angle — [ ɑ̃gl ] n. m. • XIIe; lat. angulus 1 ♦ Cour. Saillant ou rentrant formé par deux lignes ou deux surfaces qui se coupent. ⇒ arête, coin, encoignure, renfoncement. À l angle de la rue. Former un angle, être en angle. La maison qui fait l angle,… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Angle — An gle ([a^][ng] g l), n. [F. angle, L. angulus angle, corner; akin to uncus hook, Gr. agky los bent, crooked, angular, a gkos a bend or hollow, AS. angel hook, fish hook, G. angel, and F. anchor.] 1. The inclosed space near the point where two… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Angle D'or — L angle d or En géométrie, l angle d or est créé en divisant la circonférence c d un cercle en 2 sections a et b(<a) de telle manière que : et …   Wikipédia en Français

  • angle — ANGLE. s. m. Inclination de deux lignes qui aboutissent a un mesme point. Angle droit. angle aigu. angle obtus. angle de tant de degrez. cette muraille fait un grand angle. angle saillant. angle rentrant. l angle du centre. l angle de la… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • angle — ANGLE. s. m. Ouverture de deux lignes qui se rencontrent. Angle droit. Angle aigu. Angle obtus. Angle de quarante cinq degrés. Angle de cent degrés. Angle saillant. Angle rentrant. Une figure à plusieurs angles. [b]f♛/b] On dit aussi, Les angles… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française 1798

  • angle — m. angle. Angle maigre : angle aigu. Géom. > Angle agut, obtùs, drech : angle aigu, obtus, droit. voir motut …   Diccionari Personau e Evolutiu

  • angle — angle1 [aŋ′gəl] n. [ME & OFr < L angulus, a corner, angle < Gr ankylos, bent, crooked: see ANKLE] 1. a) the shape made by two straight lines meeting at a common point, the vertex, or by two planes meeting along an edge: see DIHEDRAL,… …   English World dictionary

  • Angle — An gle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Angled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Angling}.] 1. To fish with an angle (fishhook), or with hook and line. [1913 Webster] 2. To use some bait or artifice; to intrigue; to scheme; as, to angle for praise. [1913 Webster] The… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Angle — ist der Name folgender Personen: Edward H. Angle (1855–1930), US amerikanischer Orthodontist Kurt Angle (* 1968), US amerikanischer Wrestler Sharron Angle (* 1949), US amerikanische Politikerin Diese Seite ist eine …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Angle — member of a Teutonic tribe, Old English, from L. Angli the Angles, lit. people of Angul (O.N. Öngull), a region in what is now Holstein, said to be so called for its hook like shape (see ANGLE (Cf. angle) (n.)). People from the tribe there… …   Etymology dictionary

  • angle — noun. This word had been used since the 1870s in the meaning ‘the aspect from which a matter is considered’ • (The old stagers…the men who knew all the angles, who had great experience Nevil Shute, 1944) often with a defining word: the OED gives… …   Modern English usage

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