Meaning
According to norms or rules or to a regular pattern.
Etymology
Origin: Latin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₃sḱétider. Proto-Hellenic *gignṓskō Ancient Greek γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō) Proto-Indo-European *-mṓ Ancient Greek -μων (-mōn) Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn)bor. Etruscanbor.? Latin norma Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin nōrmālisder. English normal From Latin normālis (“made according to a carpenter's square; later: according to a rule”), from nōrma (“carpenter's square”), of uncertain origin; equivalent to norm + -al, doublet of normale. The earliest meaning of the word in English was "perpendicular; forming a right angle" like something normālis (“made according to a carpenter's square”), but by Late Latin normālis had also come to mean "according to a rule", from which modern English senses of the word derive: in the 1800s, as people began to quantitatively study things like height, weight and blood pressure, the usual or most common values came to be called "normal", and by extension values regarded as healthy or desirable came to be called "normal" regardless of their usuality.
Synonyms & Antonyms
NYT Puzzle Appearances
Accepted in 4 recorded puzzles: