September 11, 2009
- parallel (adjective)
- \PAIR-uh-lel\
- What does it mean?
- 1 : lying or moving in the same direction but always the same distance apart2 a : being or relating to an electrical circuit having a number of conductors in parallel b : being or relating to a connection in a computer system in which the bits of a byte are transmitted over separate wires at the same time3 : like, similar
- How do you use it?
- A parallelogram is a closed shape whose sides are two sets of parallel lines, which is why it is named a "parallelogram."
- Are you a word wiz?
"Parallel" comes from a combination of the Greek word "para," which means "beside," and another Greek word. What do you think the other Greek root of "parallel" means?
Our English word "parallel" comes from two Greek roots: "para" and "allelon," which means "of one another." That second word, "allelon," comes from the earlier Greek word "allos," meaning "other." The resulting Greek word "parallelos," means "beside one another." The Greek word was certainly used in math, but it was also used like our sense 3 above, to mean "like" or "similar." "Parallel" made its way into English in the 1500s.
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