## Etymology
From Latin rectus ('right, straight') + angulus ('angle, corner'), modeled on French rectangle. Rectus is the past participle of regere ('to direct, keep straight').

## AI Etymology
Rectangle comes from Latin rectus ('right, straight') + angulus ('angle, corner'), modeled on French rectangle. Rectus is the past participle of regere ('to direct, keep straight'). The historical chain includes Latin rectus, Latin angulus, and Latin regere. The quoted older senses, "right, straight", "angle, corner", and "to direct, keep straight", supply the semantic anchors for rectangle. The formation is best read as compound, participial, and borrowed: the word rectangle carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a four-sided figure with four right angles". English derivatives include rectangular and rectangularity; related English forms include rectify, rectitude, angle, and triangle. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Space, Position & Direction

markdown

rectangle

Meanings

Thesaurus

Etymology

Topics

External links

Keyboard Shortcuts

General

Send feedback