[ad. Gr. ἐλλειπτικός elliptic, defective, f. ἐλλείπειν to come short: cf. ELLIPSE.]
1. That has the form of an ellipse; pertaining to ellipses.
1726. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 380. If the whole Area … of the Elliptic Orbit be imagined to be divided into 360 equal Parts.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xii. 262. A building of an elliptic figure.
1808. A. Parsons, Trav. Afr., iii. 36. All others [arches] which I had hitherto observed being eliptick.
1830. Sir J. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 11. These are the steps by which we have risen to a knowledge of the elliptic motions of the planets.
1877. B. Williamson, Int. Calculus, vii. 190. The area of any elliptic sector.
1888. W. W. Rouse Ball, Hist. Math., 292. The rectification of an elliptic arc.
¶ That has an elliptic (as opposed to a circular orbit); in quot. = ‘eccentric.’
1806. Moore, Epist., II. i. 42. Every wild, elliptic star.
b. Elliptic chuck: a chuck for oval or elliptic turning; elliptic compass(es, an instrument for drawing ellipses; elliptic spring (for carriages), a spring formed by two sets of curved plates, forming two elliptic arcs united at the ends.
c. Comb. In definitions of form: (Bot.) elliptic-lanceolate, -oblong, -obovate, -ovate, -ovoid adjs., having a form intermediate between elliptic and lanceolate, etc.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., vi. (1858), 88. Radical [leaves] *elliptic-lanceolate.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 54. Lower leaves petioled *elliptic-oblong. Ibid., 417. Rhombic or *elliptic-obovate. Ibid., 234. Leaves *elliptic-ovate. Ibid., 410. Perigynia *elliptic-ovoid.
2. Elliptic integrals: a class of integrals discovered by Legendre in 1786, so named because their discovery was the result of the investigation of elliptic arcs. Elliptic functions: certain specific functions of these integrals. (Formerly the term elliptic functions was applied to what are now called elliptic integrals.)
1845. Penny Cycl., 1st Supp. s.v., A large class of integrals closely related to and containing among them the expression for the arc of an ellipse have received the name of Elliptic functions.
1876. Cayley, Elliptic Functions, 8. sn u is a sort of sine function, and cn u, dn u are sorts of cosine-functions of u; these are called Elliptic Functions.
1881. Williamson, in Encycl. Brit., XIII. 63. The epithet ‘elliptic’ applied to these integrals is purely conventional, arising from the connexion of one of them with the arc of an ellipse.
3. Gram. Of sentences, phrases or style: Characterized by ellipsis; = ELLIPTICAL 2.
4. quasi-sb. (nonce-use.)
1807. Southey, Espriella’s Lett. (1814), II. 79. They were talking of parabolics and elliptics, and describing diagrams on the table with a wet finger.
Hence as combining form Elliptico-.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med., 389. Leaves … elliptico-lanceolate.
1883. St. James’s Gaz., 3 Feb., 6. His style … is of the elliptico-interjectional sort.
