rhomb

English

Etymology

Partly borrowed from Middle French rhombe and partly from its etymon Latin rhombus, from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos). Doublet of rhombus and rhumb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɒm/, /ɹɒmb/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ɹʌmb/

Noun

rhomb (plural rhombs)

1. A rhombus.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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;

   • 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 circumference on a blackboard, a rectangular triangle, a rhomb, are forms which we can fully intuit;

2. A rhombohedron.

Derived terms

• Fresnel's rhomb

References

• “rhomb”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “rhomb”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “rhomb”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “rhomb, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.