compass: [13] The notion underlying compass is of ‘measuring out with paces’. It originated as a verb, Vulgar Latin *compassāre ‘pace out’, a compound formed from the Latin intensive prefix com- and passus (source of English pace). This passed into Old French as compasser ‘measure’, and thence into English. The derived Old French noun compas was early applied to a pivoted two-armed measuring and drawing instrument, presumably inspired equally by the ideas ‘stepping’ and ‘measuring’, and English acquired this sense in the 14th century.
The use of the word for a magnetic direction indicator, which dates from the 16th century, may be due to the device’s circular container. => pace
compass (n.)
c. 1300, "space, area, extent, circumference," from Old French compas "circle, radius, pair of compasses" (12c.), from compasser "to go around, measure, divide equally," from Vulgar Latin *compassare "to pace out" (source of Italian compassare, Spanish compasar), from Latin com- "together" (see com-) + passus "a step" (see pace (n.)).
The mathematical instrument so called from mid-14c. The mariners' directional tool (so called since early 15c.) took the name, perhaps, because it's round and has a point like the mathematical instrument. The word is in most European languages, with a mathematical sense in Romance, a nautical sense in Germanic, and both in English.
compass (v.)
c. 1300, "to devise, plan;" early 14c. as "to surround, contain, envelop, enclose;" from Anglo-French cumpasser, from compass (n.). Related: Compassed; compassing.
双语例句
1. You can go anywhere and still the compass points north or south.
无论走到哪里，罗盘仍然指向北或南。
来自柯林斯例句
2. We didn't have satnav, so the traditional map and compass took over.
我们没有卫星导航系统，因此使用了传统的地图加指南针。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Sightseers arrived from all points of the compass.