This week’s theme
Geometrical terms used figuratively

This week’s words
squarehead
circle the wagons
square-toed
circumlocution
square the circle


Wordsmith Games

🧩	Jigsaw Riddle The Life Line
🌍	Langitude Trace cravat home

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(skwair thuh SUHR-kuhl)

MEANING:

idiom: To accomplish what appears to be impossible, especially in satisfying conflicting requirements.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the classical geometric problem of constructing, using only a compass and straightedge, a square equal in area to a given circle. Earliest documented use: 1624.

NOTES:

In classical geometry, to square the circle is to construct a square with the same area as a given circle, using only a compass and straightedge. Mathematicians chased this problem for centuries. In 1882, it was proved impossible to do exactly in a finite number of steps. That has not stopped people, in mathematics or elsewhere, from trying. Anyone who still tries to solve this problem is being completely irrational (just like π).

USAGE:

“I understand, Terence, what a dilemma you had: there seemed no way to square the circle.”
S.R. White; White Ash Ridge; Headline; 2024.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: