English words

[+PISA-caching]

One of my waymarks was lately declined and no, I don't want to complain about that. Not at all. But the reason of the officer made me think: Is there an official source to find out what words exist in English or not?

 

The story: I found a sign in Croatia of a heptagonal (7sided) chapel. The sign says "Heptagonal" in Croatian and Italian language, but the English translation says "Hectagonal". I tried to find a translation for "Hectagonal" and interestingly translate.google.com translates it to the German word "Achteckig" (Octagonal) and www.deepl.com to "Sechseckig" (Hexagonal). Further research led me to this webpage, saying that "hectagonal" is not an English word, but Wikipedia knows at least of "Hectagonal number". So, I'm more than confused and I'm really interested to hear what native English speaking people say. BTW, the officer said, that it is just another word, meaning polygon.

[+SMacB]

Hectagon (or Hectogon) - 100 sided shape

Although I couldn't find an 'official' source (OED etc) there is a wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectogon

In itself I believe it is a perfectly legitimate word. Hecto - 100 times the stated unit - ie in Hect-are, Hecto-litre , Hecto-gram https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hecto?q=hecto-

-gon derived from Proto-Indo-European root meaning "knee; angle."  Latin genu "knee;" Old English cneo, cneow "knee."

 

If this word came up in casual conversation, it would perfectly describe a 100 sided shape.

Sadly for you WM, it does describe a shape with one or two too many sides

[+FamilieFrohne]

 

5 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

 BTW, the officer said, that it is just another word, meaning polygon.

A polygon is in my understanding any closed geometrical form (aka some form where all points are connected by straight edges) in a system with two dimensions (i.e. a sheet of paper).

So simply saying that a heptagon is another word for a polygon is logically right, but looses the intended semantics for the seven sided polygon.

 

Back to your question: I don't know, where to find the official word list in english but I would suggest the dictionary Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com) - as it was one of the books we used in our english lessons in school.

 

And for the question on the heptagon/septagon: there is a wiki article on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heptagon

 

[+ScroogieII]

First, Andreas, I wouldn't trust Google translate completely.

 

11 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

The sign says "Heptagonal" in Croatian and Italian language, but the English translation says "Hectagonal".

This may have been a typo, or the result of an incomplete education, as "Heptagonal" should always translate to "Heptagonal" and nothing else.

 

If one peruses the definitions offered by several dictionaries they will find nothing but agreement on the meaning of the word Heptagonal.

Heptagon definition is - a polygon of seven angles and seven sides. - Merriam-Webster

Heptagon Definition. A heptagon is a polygon with 7 sides and 7 angles. Sometimes the heptagon is also known as "septagon". - byjus.com

Heptagon definition, a polygon having seven angles and seven sides. - Dictionary.com

English dictionary definition of heptagon. heptagon n. A polygon with seven sides and seven angles. - The Free Dictionary

Definition. A heptagon is a polygon with seven sides and seven angles.. A heptagon is also known as 7-gon or septagon. - Math Monks

 

AND, should you need to find the area of a regular heptagon: 

The area of a regular heptagon with side length 'a' is calculated using the formula, Area = (7a²/4) cot (π/7)

 

The Free Dictionary, incidentally, redirects from Hectagon to Polygon

From the Free Dictionary:

pentagon - a five-sided polygon

hexagon - a six-sided polygon

heptagon - a seven-sided polygon

octagon - an eight-sided polygon

nonagon - a nine-sided polygon

decagon - a polygon with 10 sides and 10 angles

undecagon - an eleven-sided polygon

dodecagon - a twelve-sided polygon

 

As for an Official List of English Words, I used to have that, or certainly the next best thing. It was a very large, two volume dictionary entitled, I believe, The Complete Oxford English Dictionary. I likely ended up donating or selling it when we moved as it was deemed too big to lug around the country and had been effectively superseded by myriad online clones.

However, the Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary can still be had at Amazon for the ridiculously low price of U.S. $452.49.

More than 100 years in the making, The Oxford English Dictionary is now universally acknowledged as the world's greatest dictionary--the supreme arbiter on the usage and meaning of English words.

 

The online Dictionary contains the complete A to Z sequence of the Second Edition, its three-volume Additions Series, and also draft material from the revision programme, which represents the latest progress towards the Third Edition. More revised and new entries will be added to the online Dictionary every quarter, and these will eventually cumulate to form the complete new edition.

 

The online edition requires an annual subscription of £100/$100, BUT may be available to you, free, if your library subscribes to it.

 

There's even a History of the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as factual information on the OED.

The complete Second Edition of The Dictionary, published in 1989, consists of 20 volumes, with 21,730 pages.

Since that time there have been three volumes of additions, adding ~1,000 pages, with further online additions following.

 

This, then would have to be the "official source to find out what words exist in English or not" that Andreas requested.

 

Hectagonal is not a word I've had occasion to utter with any regularity. With my septuagenarian eyesight, a Hectagon becomes just a circle.

Keith

Edited October 24, 2021 by ScroogieII

[+PISA-caching]

@SMacB: Well, if you enter "Hectagon" at Wikipedia, it will forward you to the page for "Hectogon", which says "hectogon or hecatontagon". For me, that means that "Hectagon" is not the right word and Wikipedia just forwards you to the right page.

 

@FamilieFrohne: Thanks for the link to https://www.merriam-webster.com, but it doesn't even know "Hectogon". 

 

@ScroogieII: Thanks for the load of information. If I should ever have to calculate the area of a heptagon, I now know where to look for the formula.  I didn't have to do it in the last 50+ years, but you never know.  Additionally: Usually I use www.deepl.com, but if I have to translate a language, that deepl.com doesn't know, I use translate.google.com. And sometimes I use both and if their translations differ from each other, I use the one that I think is better. So, I don't trust both of them 100%. 

 

Summing up all the information above, I come to the conclusion, that "hectagonal" is not an official word, and if at all, it means "100 sided".

[+ScroogieII]

10 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

Summing up all the information above, I come to the conclusion, that "hectagonal" is not an official word, and if at all, it means "100 sided".

 

For now, I'll not dispute the existence of the words hectagon and hectagonal.

I'll wait until I can lay hands on a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, either in hard copy or online.

As yet I haven't found a library which subscribes to the online version, but I'm still looking.

 

Just by-the-by ----------- the Canadian Loonie in an undecagon.  

Keith

Edited October 25, 2021 by ScroogieII

[+PISA-caching]

38 minutes ago, HHL said:

Just use a plain Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Heptagonal

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/englisch/heptagonal

 

The question was, whether the word "hectagonal" (with a "C") is an official word or not.

 

[+PISA-caching]

42 minutes ago, ScroogieII said:

For now, I'll not dispute the existence of the words hectagon and hectagonal.

I'll wait until I can either lay hands on a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, either in hard copy or online.

 

Just as you have to prove you're alive with a birth certificate, I don't believe the word "hectagonal" exists until I've been proven its existence. 

 

PS: Nice coin.

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by PISA-caching

[+mustakorppi]

I have the old CD-ROM version of Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition, from back when dictionaries were still something one could buy instead of rent access to...

 

The OED does not know the word 'hectagonal'.  The only word starting 'hecta' it knows is 'hectastyle', which it lists as an erroneous spelling of 'hexastyle', meaning 'Having six columns; applied to a portico or to the façade of a temple'

 

The word 'hect-' or 'hecto-' is listed as meaning hundred, and the OED does list a number of words using this prefix. Presumably one could also form 'hectagon' and then 'hectagonal'; there just isn't evidence of a native speaker (whose writings the OED editors have perused) having done so. And the meaning would obviously be very different from 'heptagonal'.

 

(Getting this ancient 16-bit application working on a 64-bit Windows 10 was a bit of a headache. It mostly works by running WINE in Linux running in Hyper-V -- essentially Windows emulating Linux emulating Windows- - but the fonts that would correctly render the Greek word for hundred used in the definition of hect-, hecto- are unfortunately missing...)

 

 

[+ScroogieII]

Well, Thank You ever so much for your input, Black Raven.

The Official Authority has spoken and put the words hectagon and hectagonal to rest... ...

... for the moment. Now I'm wondering what the third edition will have to say on the subject.

After all, if we were to spew forth the words a sufficient number of times, it would, eventually, surely find its way into a future edition of the OED.

 

I see you're in Finland. Any chance you're near Turku? I recently found a fifth/sixth cousin once removed who is in Turku.

Keith

Edited October 25, 2021 by ScroogieII

[+iconions]

On 10/24/2021 at 3:09 PM, ScroogieII said:

First, Andreas, I wouldn't trust Google translate completely.

 

This may have been a typo, or the result of an incomplete education, as "Heptagonal" should always translate to "Heptagonal" and nothing else.

 

If one peruses the definitions offered by several dictionaries they will find nothing but agreement on the meaning of the word Heptagonal.

Heptagon definition is - a polygon of seven angles and seven sides. - Merriam-Webster

Heptagon Definition. A heptagon is a polygon with 7 sides and 7 angles. Sometimes the heptagon is also known as "septagon". - byjus.com

Heptagon definition, a polygon having seven angles and seven sides. - Dictionary.com

English dictionary definition of heptagon. heptagon n. A polygon with seven sides and seven angles. - The Free Dictionary

Definition. A heptagon is a polygon with seven sides and seven angles.. A heptagon is also known as 7-gon or septagon. - Math Monks

 

AND, should you need to find the area of a regular heptagon: 

The area of a regular heptagon with side length 'a' is calculated using the formula, Area = (7a²/4) cot (π/7)

 

The Free Dictionary, incidentally, redirects from Hectagon to Polygon

From the Free Dictionary:

pentagon - a five-sided polygon

hexagon - a six-sided polygon

heptagon - a seven-sided polygon

octagon - an eight-sided polygon

nonagon - a nine-sided polygon

decagon - a polygon with 10 sides and 10 angles

undecagon - an eleven-sided polygon

dodecagon - a twelve-sided polygon

 

As for an Official List of English Words, I used to have that, or certainly the next best thing. It was a very large, two volume dictionary entitled, I believe, The Complete Oxford English Dictionary. I likely ended up donating or selling it when we moved as it was deemed too big to lug around the country and had been effectively superseded by myriad online clones.

However, the Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary can still be had at Amazon for the ridiculously low price of U.S. $452.49.

More than 100 years in the making, The Oxford English Dictionary is now universally acknowledged as the world's greatest dictionary--the supreme arbiter on the usage and meaning of English words.

 

The online Dictionary contains the complete A to Z sequence of the Second Edition, its three-volume Additions Series, and also draft material from the revision programme, which represents the latest progress towards the Third Edition. More revised and new entries will be added to the online Dictionary every quarter, and these will eventually cumulate to form the complete new edition.

 

The online edition requires an annual subscription of £100/$100, BUT may be available to you, free, if your library subscribes to it.

 

There's even a History of the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as factual information on the OED.

The complete Second Edition of The Dictionary, published in 1989, consists of 20 volumes, with 21,730 pages.

Since that time there have been three volumes of additions, adding ~1,000 pages, with further online additions following.

 

This, then would have to be the "official source to find out what words exist in English or not" that Andreas requested.

 

Hectagonal is not a word I've had occasion to utter with any regularity. With my septuagenarian eyesight, a Hectagon becomes just a circle.

Keith

...and remember that the world is a circle without a beginning where no one knows where it really ends.  

[+ScroogieII]

1 hour ago, iconions said:

...and remember that the world is a circle without a beginning where no one knows where it really ends.  

 

Actually, Tom, our world is a sphere, or nearly so. Can't, at the moment, think of the proper term for it. Oblate Spheroid? Spheroid? I dunno, just can't remember.

As to "where it really ends" - I won't get into that, don't have all the pertinent data at hand just yet.

Keith

[+FamilieFrohne]

5 hours ago, ScroogieII said:

Actually, Tom, our world is a sphere, or nearly so. Can't, at the moment, think of the proper term for it. Oblate Spheroid? Spheroid? I dunno, just can't remember.

As to "where it really ends" - I won't get into that, don't have all the pertinent data at hand just yet.

Keith

 

Rotational ellipsoid would be the term you are looking for. But effectivly we are living on a big ball of dirt looking more like a potato when you remove the water .

[+ScroogieII]

13 hours ago, FamilieFrohne said:

Rotational ellipsoid

 

Ellipsoid of revolution or Rotational ellipsoid = Spheroid - at least according to Wiki. I haven't cracked a math book in years, so I'll accept that..

[+iconions]

On 10/25/2021 at 6:30 PM, iconions said:

...and remember that the world is a circle without a beginning where no one knows where it really ends.  

You know - a joke REALLY isn't funny if you hafta explain it....
https://genius.com/Burt-bacharach-the-world-is-a-circle-lyrics
Just Sayin' ....  I at least thought, Keith, you being at least as old a fart as I am, you woulda given me a well played or at least a smiley.... 

[+ScroogieII]

On 10/30/2021 at 7:07 AM, iconions said:

I at least thought, Keith, you being at least as old a fart as I am, you woulda given me a well played or at least a smiley.... 

 

I would have if I weren't too dull and addled to get it.

I can bring to mind a heap 'o lyrics, but, unfortunately, not those. That sailed over my head like an errant Nolan Ryan fastball!!

 

Here's yer smileys, Tom -