Hyperbolae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally
2. Forms the plural of a geometric term related to a specific type of smooth curve
3. Refers to over-the-top rhetoric often used for dramatic effect

Etymology: "Hyperbolae" is simply the Latinate plural of "hyperbola," and the singular is the more interesting word. It comes from ancient Greek "huperbolē," which meant "excess" or "throwing beyond," built from "huper" ("over, beyond") and "ballein" ("to throw"). The same Greek noun also gave English "hyperbole," the rhetorical term for deliberate exaggeration, so the two words are doublets: one entered English through scholarly channels, the other through the classroom of rhetoric. The mathematical sense is the surprising part. Greek geometers used "huperbolē" for a conic section, a curve produced when a cone is cut by a plane. Their naming was tied to the parabola and ellipse, which were understood through a process of "application" of areas, and the excess or overshoot in the construction gave the curve its name. The word reached modern mathematics through New Latin "hyperbola," a Latinized form that retained the Greek sense of excess.

Synonyms: hyperbolas