Translation
proportion, ratio
Word origin
From Latin proportio, a contraction of the phrase pro portione, meaning according to the share. The Latin portio is a part or portion, so a proportion is literally what falls to you when the whole is divided up.
- Origin
- Latin
- Root
- pro portione
- English cognates
- proportion, portion, proportional
Examples
.
The ratio between the two numbers is simple.
.
In that class the proportion of girls is high.
.
The windows have beautiful proportions.
No affix here, despite appearances. The -- in is not the
-- of abstract qualities and not any other suffix in the language. It is
just the tail of the Latin word, arriving whole. The same applies to , a
portion of food, which is a separate borrowed root and not a piece of this one.
Compare procento at rank 1,995, another Latin
pro- phrase that came in as a single lump: pro , by the hundred.
Two senses, both live. The mathematical one is a ratio between quantities:
A B, and the four-term version A B C D. The everyday one is a share of a whole, which is where English speakers
reach for percentage and Esperanto is happy with either
or procento. The third, aesthetic
sense is about a thing being well shaped: a building, a face, a sentence. The
adjective proporcia and the compound senproporcia (out of all proportion)
both do useful work.
Where it sits among the measuring words you have.Kvanto at 1,438 is how much,
nombro at 576 is how many,
parto at 286 is a piece of a whole, and is
the relationship between two of those. Egala at 588
names the special case where the proportion is one to one. Together they are
most of the arithmetic vocabulary in
matematiko, and none of them needed a new root
beyond this one.
Where this fits
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proporcio: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "proporcio" (proportion, ratio): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 59.