"distorted projection or drawing" (one that looks normal from a particular angle or with a certain mirror), 1727, from Greek anamorphosis "transformation," noun of action from anamorphoein "to transform," from ana "up" (see ana-) + morphosis, from morphe "form," a word of uncertain etymology. In botany, "monstrous development of a part" (1830); in evolutionary biology, "gradual change of form in a species over time" (1852).
c. 1300, noke, "angle formed by the meeting of two lines; a corner of a room," a word of unknown origin. Possibly from Old Norse and connected with Norwegian dialectal nokke "hook, bent figure," or from Old English hnecca "neck," but the sense evolution would be difficult. OED considers the similar Celtic words to be borrowings from English. Meaning "remote or secluded place" is by late 14c.
fourth letter of the Roman alphabet, from Greek delta, from Phoenician and Hebrew daleth, pausal form of deleth "door," so called from its shape. The form of the modern letter is the Greek delta (Δ) with one angle rounded. As the sign for "500" in Roman numerals, it is said to be half of CIƆ, which was an early form of M, the sign for "1,000." 3-D for "three-dimensional" is attested from 1952.
c. 1300, "a wedge, a wedge-shaped piece used for some purpose," from Old French coing (12c.) "a wedge; stamp; piece of money;" usually "corner, angle," from Latin cuneus "a wedge," which is of unknown origin.
The die for stamping metal was wedge-shaped, and by late 14c. the English word came to mean "thing stamped, piece of metal converted into money by being impressed with official marks or characters" (a sense that already had developed in Old French). Meaning "coined money collectively, specie" is from late 14c.
Compare quoin, which split off from this word 16c., taking the architectural sense. Modern French coin is "corner, angle, nook."
The custom of striking coins as money began in western Asia Minor in 7c. B.C.E.; Greek tradition and Herodotus credit the Lydians with being first to make and use coins of silver and gold. Coin-operated (adj.), of machinery, is attested from 1890. Coin collector is attested from 1795.
"joint between the principal bones of the leg," Old English cneo, cneow "knee," from Proto-Germanic *knewa- (source also of Old Norse kne, Old Saxon kneo, Old Frisian kni, Middle Dutch cnie, Dutch knie, Old High German kniu, German Knie, Gothic kniu), from PIE root *genu- (1) "knee; angle." For pronunciation, see kn-.
To be across (someone's) knee in reference to spanking is from 1866. Knee-breeches is from 1827; knee-pants is from 1858. Knee-slapper "funny joke" is from 1955.
As a noun from 1610s, "tool or instrument for drawing angles and adjusting abutting surfaces;" 1670s as "an angle between adjacent sides." The verb, "to reduce to a sloping edge," is first recorded 1670s. Related: Bevelled; bevelling.
1560s, in geometry, "plane figure contained by a right angle and a part of a circumference of a circle," from Latin segmentum "a strip or piece cut off, a cutting, strips of colored cloth," from secare "to cut" (from PIE root *sek- "to cut"), with euphonious alteration of -c- to -g- before -m-.
Latin segmentum was used in Medieval Latin as a geometry term, translating Greek tmema. The meaning "segmental portion of anything circular" is from 1640s; the general sense of "a division, section, part cut off or marked as separate from others" is from 1762.
