hypotenusal, a. and n.
(hɪp-, haɪpɒtəˈnjuːsəl)
Also hypothenusal.
[ad. late L. hypotēnūsāl-is, f. hypotēnūsa hypotenuse.]
A. adj. Pertaining to, or of the nature of, a hypotenuse; forming a hypotenuse. Now rare.
| 1571 Digges Pantom. i. xxxi. K j a, Fyrste I measure the Hypothenusall lyne. 1658 Phillips, Hypothenusal line, a term in Geometry, it is that side of a right-angled triangle which is subtended or opposite to the right angle. 1785 Roy in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 420 The tops of the pickets, marking the hypothenusal distances, were the points on which the levelling rods were placed. 1831 G. B. Airy Math. Tracts (1842) 293 Two glass prisms, right-angled or nearly so, are placed with their hypotenusal sides nearly in contact. |
† B. n. (sc. line) = hypotenuse. Obs.
| 1641 Wilkins Math. Magick ii. xv. (1648) 279 If the Hypotenusall, or Screw be 5, the perpendicular or elevation must be 3, and the basis 4. 1656 Hobbes Six Less. Wks. 1845 VII. 317 The hypotenusal of a rectangled triangle. 1661 S. Partridge Double Scale Proport. 136 In a right angled Triangle, the Angles and the Hypothenusal being given [etc.]. |