Globate

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Taking on a rounded or spherical form is characteristic of resembling a globe or ball, and this applies to objects that are compact and have a bulging outline
2. Describing something that is shaped like a globe, having a smooth, curved and spherical form
3. Characterized by a compact and nearly spherical outline that makes the object appear globe-shaped

Etymology: Latin "globus" meant a round mass or ball, and the verb "globare" was built from it to mean "to make into a ball." Its past participle, "globatus," described something already shaped that way, and English took that adjective largely unchanged. The sense we use today, a compact, nearly spherical outline that makes an object look like a globe, grows directly from that original idea of something rounded into a ball. The word is a plain borrowing rather than a coinage, so its interest lies in how closely it keeps the shape of its Latin parent. Where "globe" arrived in English through French and kept the noun's sense of a sphere, "globate" stayed a technical description of form, applied to things that are almost but not quite perfectly round.

Synonyms: spherical, round, circular

Antonyms: flat, angular