oblong

See also: Oblong

English

Etymology

From Middle English oblong, oblonge, borrowed from Latin oblongus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒblɒŋ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑbˌlɔŋ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Adjective

oblong (comparative more oblong, superlative most oblong)

1. Having a length and width that are different; not square or circular.
   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 19:

     The room was quite dark. The oblong window showed the night sky pricked here and there with stars.

2. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) Roughly rectangular or elliptical.
   • 1902, A. W. Peart, “Blackberries: Notes by A. W. Peart”, in Annual Report, page 41:

     Plant upright spreading hardy, vigorous and productive; berry, oblong, round, medium size, sweet but rather ideipid.

3. (bookmaking) Having the horizontal axis of a page longer than the vertical; In landscape orientation.
   • 1971, Donald William Krummel, Oblong Format in Early Music Books, page 316:

     Of the smaller oblong formats, none is specifically designated for music.

   • 2017, Sean Gallagher, Secular Renaissance Music: Forms and Functions:

     Mass cycles and motets had never been presented in small oblong format, so far as we can tell.

Derived terms

• oblong number
• suboblong

 

Related terms

• oblongate

Translations

longer than wide

• Armenian: երկարավուն (hy) (erkaravun)
• Bulgarian: продълговат (bg) (prodǎlgovat), удължен (bg) (udǎlžen)
• Catalan: oblong (ca)
• Czech: podlouhlý (cs)
• Dutch: langwerpig (nl)
• French: oblong (fr)
• Georgian: მოგრძო (mogrʒo), წაგრძელებული (c̣agrʒelebuli)
• German: länglich (de), lang (de), quer (de), breit (de)
• Greek: στενόμακρος (el) (stenómakros)

  Ancient: στενόμακρος (stenómakros)

• Icelandic: ílangur (is)
• Latin: oblongus
• Maori: tapawhā hāngai
• Norman: bêlong
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: avlang

  Nynorsk: avlang

• Polish: podłużny (pl)
• Portuguese: oblongo (pt), oblongado
• Romanian: prelung (ro)
• Russian: продолговатый (ru) (prodolgovatyj), вытянутый (ru) (vytjanutyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: duguljast (sh) m
• Spanish: oblongo (es)
• Swedish: avlång (sv)

roughly rectangular or elliptical

• French: oblong (fr)
• German: rechteckig (de), oblong (de)
• Latin: oblongus
• Norman: bêlong
• Spanish: oblongo (es)
• Swedish: avlång (sv)

Noun

oblong (plural oblongs)

1. Something with an oblong shape.
2. A rectangle with length and width that are different.
   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 88:

     Jessamy looked round her in a puzzled way, but there was nothing to see but the pale oblong of what looked like a star-pierced sky behind the bars of the nursery window.

3. An ellipse with minor and major axes that are different.

Translations

with an oblong shape

• Dutch: rechthoek (nl) m,oblong (nl) n,
• German: Oblong n, Oblongum n, Quadratum oblongum n, längliches Rechteck, Rechteck (de) n
• Latin: rectangulum oblongum

Verb

oblong (third-person singular simple present oblongs, present participle oblonging, simple past and past participle oblonged)

1. To extend so as to form an oblong shape.
   • 1670, John Bull, signed sealed and delivered in the psents of Antony Waters [/] Rachell (X) Waters; republished as “Town Minutes”, in Town Minutes of Newtown: 1656-1688 (Transcriptions of Early Town Records of New York; […]), volume 1, New York, N.Y.: The Historical Records Survey, 1940 June, pages 181–182:

     […] ; by John Denmans hom lot on the north sid the front by a salt crek the reare to the comon which hom lot with all the upland oblonging to it conteining to about fourtie acers more or lese with about one acer & half of salt medo liing before the said house […]

   • 1818, John Haywood, “Childress versus Holland. Whyte, Judge, delivered the opinion of himself and Judge Roane.”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of Tennessee, from the Year 1816 to 1817, volume III, Knoxville, Tenn.: […] Heiskell & Brown, page 276:

     That the Gilbert tract, according to his opinion and the law, ought to have been oblonged up the creek. That by oblonging it across the creek, it afforded Elijah Robertson, who superintended the surveying, an opportunity of laying a warrant not located there, for himself, and thereby takes 5,000 acres.

2. To give an oblong shape to.
   • 1928, New York Supreme Court, page 2149:

     A. Why, by dropping them off of cars or dropping them off of trucks or some way it would oblong them .

   • 2006, Nancy Zafris, Lucky Strike, page 165:

     His silhouette: broad shoulders, big legs, a square face oblonged by a crest of thick hair and almost lantern jaw.

   • 2008, Gary D. Schmidt, Trouble, New York, N.Y.: Clarion Books, →ISBN, page 287:

     And there were suddenly berries where there had been none before, bright red and bright blue, all with a careless water drop oblonging their form.

   • 2020, Elizabeth Ames, The Other's Gold:

     […] the venue (a private country club nestled in the woods outside Cincinnati, with a dance hall whose ceilings went straight to the moon), to the ice cubes (truly cubed, not oblonged or crushed, and king-sized cubes for the bourbon rocks),

Related terms

• oblate
• obloid

See also

• prolate
• rectangle

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin oblongus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [uˈβloŋ]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencian) [oˈbloŋk]

Adjective

oblong (feminine oblonga, masculine plural oblongs, feminine plural oblongues)

1. oblong

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin oblongus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.blɔ̃/

• Audio (CAN)

  (file)

Adjective

oblong (feminine oblongue, masculine plural oblongs, feminine plural oblongues)

1. oblong

Further reading

• “oblong”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French oblong, from Latin oblongus.

Adjective

oblong m or n (feminine singular oblongă, masculine plural oblongi, feminine and neuter plural oblonge)

1. oblong

Declension

Declension of oblong

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	oblong		oblongă	oblongi	oblonge
	definite	oblongul		oblonga	oblongii	oblongele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	oblong		oblonge	oblongi	oblonge
	definite	oblongului		oblongei	oblongilor	oblongelor