Number & MeasureGreek → English
Parabola
/pəˈræbələ/noun
The open curve traced by a point equidistant from a fixed point and a fixed line, and the path of a thrown object.
The Greek roots
παρά
pará
beside, alongside
βάλλειν
bállein
to throw
Literally: “a throwing beside”
The story of the word
In ordinary Greek παραβολή meant a comparison, one thing set beside another, which is why the same noun gives English parable. Apollonius of Perga borrowed it around 200 BC for the conic section whose defining rectangle applies exactly, neither short like the ellipse nor over like the hyperbola. Galileo showed that a projectile follows one. French parole and Spanish palabra, both meaning word, descend from the same Greek noun through Latin parabola, speech.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1570s
Same family
parablehyperbolasymbolproblem
In a sentence
A satellite dish is a parabola spun around its axis, so every incoming ray meets at the receiver.