Re: [HM] Wither the Parallelepipedon

Jeff Miller (JeffM@sanctum.com)
Sun, 13 Jun 1999 18:52:04 -0400

The parallelepiped is fully discussed in a 1966 Houghton-Mifflin high
school geometry textbook which was widely used in the U. S. This textbook
was reprinted as recently as 1980. However, the term does not appear in
some U. S. geometry textbooks I have from 1981, 1986, and the 1990s.

According to Plane and Solid Geometry by Wentworth and Smith (1888-1913),
"The word is also, with less authority, spelled parallelopiped."

The 1570 date for parallelepiped in Merriam-Webster's Tenth Collegiate
Dictionary refers to the first known use of the term in English, which
would be in Billingsley's translation of Euclid.

Another solid geometry term in Wentworth and Smith that is no longer seen
is "prismatoid," which seems to have had a rather short life.

Jeff Miller
http://members.aol.com/jeff570mathword.html