Number & MeasureGreek → English
Hyperbola
/haɪˈpɜːrbələ/noun
The two-branched open curve produced when a plane cuts both halves of a double cone.
The Greek roots
ὑπέρ
hypér
over, beyond
βάλλειν
bállein
to throw
Literally: “a throwing beyond”
The story of the word
Apollonius named this one for an excess, the curve whose square overshoots the reference rectangle. In everyday Greek the same noun meant exaggeration, which is exactly what English hyperbole means, so hyperbola and hyperbole are one word doing two jobs with two pronunciations. Hyperbolic serves both senses without apology. A body falling past the sun fast enough to escape leaves on a hyperbola, which is how the interstellar object 1I/ʻOumuamua was identified in 2017.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1660s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
hyperboleparabolaellipsesymbol
In a sentence
Plot xy equals one and you get a hyperbola with the axes as its asymptotes.