Squaring

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process involving the formation of right angles in geometry; the mathematical operation of multiplying a quantity by itself; the adjustment of elements in a manner that achieves equilibrium or neatness
2. The act of creating right-angled shapes in geometry ; the mathematical calculation of a number multiplied by itself ; the method of aligning aspects to reach uniformity or balance
3. The procedure for establishing perpendicular angles in a geometric context ; the operation of obtaining a square value in arithmetic ; the arrangement of various components to achieve order and symmetry

Etymology: Squaring is simply the present participle of "square," so its story is really the story of the noun-turned-verb it grows from. The surprising part is where that root comes from: Latin "quadrus," meaning "four-sided" or "four-cornered," with the prefix "ex-" added in Vulgar Latin as "*exquadra." That form passed into Old French as "esquarre" and "esquerre," the ancestor of modern French "équerre," meaning a carpenter's set square, and English borrowed it in Middle English as "square" and its spellings "sqware" and "squyre." Before that borrowing, English had its own word for the shape. Old English used "fēowerecge," literally "four-edged," which the French-derived term eventually displaced. English "quad" and the word "quadra" are relatives from the same Latin root, and "square" is a doublet of "squad" and "squadra," which entered English from the same source through a different route.

Synonyms: aligning, aligning, adjusting

Antonyms: misaligning, disarranging