latitude词源

英文词源

latitude

latitude: [14] Latin lātus meant ‘broad’. From it were derived dīlātāre ‘spread out’ (source of English dilate) and lātitūdō, which English took over as latitude. Its use as a cartographical term stems from the oblong maps of the ancient world, in which distance from north to south represented ‘breadth’ (hence latitude), and distance from east to west represented ‘length’ (hence longitude [16], from Latin longitūdō, a derivative of longus ‘long’).
=> dilate

latitude (n.)

late 14c., "breadth," from Old French latitude (13c.) and directly from Latin latitudo "breadth, width, extent, size," from latus "wide," from PIE root *stele- "to spread" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic steljo "to spread out," Armenian lain "broad"). Geographical sense also is from late 14c., literally "breadth" of a map of the known world. Figurative sense of "allowable degree of variation" is early 15c. Related: Latitudinal.