Number & MeasureGreek → English
Hexahedron
/ˌhɛksəˈhiːdrən/noun
A solid with six faces; the regular one is the cube.
The Greek roots
ἕξ
héx
six
ἕδρα
hédra
seat, face
Literally: “six-seated”
The story of the word
Plato gave the cube to earth in the Timaeus, on the reasoning that the steadiest of the solids should belong to the least mobile element. Mathematicians still say hexahedron rather than cube when they need to include the irregular six-faced solids that cube would shut out. The ἕξ here and the Latin sex behind our six are cousins from one Indo-European root, which is why they look so alike.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
hexagonhexametertetrahedronpolyhedron
In a sentence
A brick is a hexahedron, just not a regular one.