Number & MeasureGreek → English
Diagram
/ˈdaɪəɡræm/noun
A simplified drawing showing how something works or how its parts relate.
The Greek roots
διά
diá
through, across
γράμμα
grámma
line, letter, drawing
Literally: “marked out by lines”
The story of the word
In Greek mathematics a διάγραμμα was the figure that went with a proof, the lines drawn in sand or scratched on a wax tablet while the argument was spoken. The word also named a musical scale written out. English took it in the 1610s and kept the geometric flavour for a long time before it spread to wiring, plumbing and the modern organisation chart.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1610s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
grammarprogramtelegramepigramgraph
In a sentence
The instructions were useless but the diagram made it obvious.
Draw me a diagram, because I have lost track of who reports to whom.