English

Noun

rhomboides ‎(plural rhomboides)

1. (obsolete) A rhomboid.
   • John Milton

     […] they would request us to endure still the rustling of their silken cassocks, and that we would burst our Midriffs, rather than laugh to see them under sail in all their lawn and sarcenet, their shrouds and tackle, with a Geometrical Rhomboides upon their heads […]

   • 1763, Noël Antoine Pluche, Spectacle de la Nature: Or, Nature Display'd (page 169)

     Let the Square A, and the Rhomboides B, Fig. 47. serve for an Example of this, which I suppose at the Height D, equal to E, the same with d the Height of the Square A […]

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ῥομβοειδής ‎(rhomboeidḗs, “rhombus-shaped”, “rhomboidal”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /rom.boˈiː.deːs/, [rɔm.bɔˈiː.deːs]

Noun

rhomboīdēs m, f ‎(genitive rhomboīdis); third declension

1. (mathematics) a rhomboid (a four-sided figure, whose opposite sides and angles are equal)
   • post AD 104, Balbus (author), Guilelmus Goesius (editor), Balbi Liber ad Celsum in Rei agrariæ auctores legeſque variæ (1674), 36:

     Quarta quæ nec æquilatera nec rectangula eſt, ſed tantum adverſa latera & oppoſitos angulos æquales habet, & appellatur Rhomboides.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:rhomboides.

Usages notes

• Many dictionaries mention feminine gender, while Stephanus Ximenez' dictionary mentions masculine gender and while Englishmen mention neuter gender.
  • The neuter gender could be a guess based on Greek ῥομβοειδὲς σχῆμα n ‎(rhomboeidès skhêma). However, the Greek neuter form has a short e in the nominative singular ending and not a long e. Also the plural form rhomboides can be found which does not fit to a neuter noun, but to a masculine or feminine noun.
  • Masculine gender does fit with Latin rhombus m, Greek ῥόμβος m ‎(rhómbos) and also German Rhombus m and Rhomboides m which also were declined like Latin words.

Declension

Third declension.

Derived terms

• rhomboīdēus

Descendants

• English: rhomboides
• French: rhomboïde
• German: Rhomboides m, n, Rhomboide f, Rhomboid n, m

References

• rhombŏīdes in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “rhombŏīdēs”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette, page 1,363/2.
• Stephanus Ximenez, Dictionarium manuale latino-hispanum ad usum puerorum, 1808, page 619: "Rhomboides, is. m."
• J. E. Riddle, A Complete Latin-English Dictionary for the Use of Colleges and Schools: Chiefly from the German, 4th edition, London, 1844: "Rhomboides, is. n."