rhomb en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Etymology
Partly borrowed from Middle French rhombe and partly from its etymon Latin rhombus, from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos). Doublet of rhombus and rhumb.
Meanings
-
A rhombus.
The four-sided pyramid, perhaps the most frequent of all natural crystals, is called in architecture a dogtooth; its use is quite limitless, and always beautiful: the cube and rhomb are almost equally frequent in chequers and dentils;
1851, John Ruskin, “The Material of Ornament”, in The Stones of Venice, volume I (The Foundations), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § XXIII, page 219:Their Ideas are perpetually converſant in Lines and Figures. If they would, for example, praiſe the Beauty of a Woman, or any other Animal, they deſcribe it by Rhombs, Circles, Parallelograms, Ellipſes, and other Geometrical Terms, or by Words of Art drawn from Muſick, needleſs here to repeat.
1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Humours and Dispositions of the Laputians Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 26:A circumference on a blackboard, a rectangular triangle, a rhomb, are forms which we can fully intuit;
1962 [1942], Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Anthony Kerrigan, “Death and the Compass”, in Anthony Kerrigan, editor, Ficciones, Grove Press, translation of original in Spanish, Part Two: Artifices, page 112:
- A rhombohedron.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| rhombs | Number=Plur | lexicographic |