periphery

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *per-der.

Ancient Greek περί (perí)

Ancient Greek περῐ- (peri-)

Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-

Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti

Proto-Hellenic *pʰérō

Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō)

Ancient Greek περιφέρω (periphérō)

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *-ēs

Ancient Greek -ης (-ēs)

Ancient Greek περιφερής (peripherḗs)

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂der.

Ancient Greek -ια (-ia)

Ancient Greek περιφέρεια (periphéreia)bor.

Latin peripheriabor.

Middle French peripheriebor.

English periphery

Borrowed from Middle French peripherie. Compare Middle English periferie (“one of three layers of atmosphere (lower, middle, and upper) believed to surround the Earth”), from the same origin, although the Modern English term most likely does not descend from it.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈɹɪfəɹi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation US: pe‧riph‧ery; UK: per‧iph‧ery

Noun

periphery (plural peripheries)

1. The outside boundary, parts or surface of something.

   The suburbs are a city's periphery.

   • 2015 August 1, “Spatiotemporal Patterns of Tumor Occurrence in Children with Intraocular Retinoblastoma”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     Tumor location was concentrated in the macula and superonasal periphery in patients 13.2 months.

   • 2018, Balázs Áron Kovács, Peace Infrastructures and State-Building at the Margins, Springer, →ISBN, page 280:

     The phrase 'Imperial Manila' is used throughout the archipelago to denote the capital-heavy decision-making and the imposition of the will and culture of the political and economic centre on the peripheries.

2. A first-rank administrative division of Greece, subdivided into provinces.
3. (grammar, linguistics) The more anomalous and infrequent aspects of a language, as opposed to the frequent and regular core aspects.

Antonyms

• center

Related terms

• peripherad
• peripheral
• left periphery

Translations

outside boundary, parts or surface

• Armenian: ծայրամաս (hy) (cayramas)
• Azerbaijani: ucqar
• Belarusian: перыферы́я f (pjeryfjerýja)
• Bulgarian: периферия (bg) f (periferija)
• Catalan: perifèria f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 周邊／周边 (zh) (zhōubiān), 外圍／外围 (zh) (wàiwéi)

• Czech: okraj (cs) m
• Danish: periferi, udkant
• Dutch: periferie (nl) f, buitenkant (nl) m
• Finnish: syrjäseutu (fi)
• French: périphérie (fr) f
• Georgian: პერიფერია (ṗeriperia)
• German: Peripherie (de) f
• Greek: περιφέρεια (el) f (periféreia)

  Ancient: περιφέρεια f (periphéreia)

• Hungarian: periféria (hu)
• Italian: periferia (it) f
• Japanese: 周辺 (ja) (しゅうへん, shūhen)
• Polish: obrzeże (pl) n, kraniec (pl) m, skraj (pl) m, peryferie (pl) f pl, kresy (pl) m pl, pogranicze (pl) n
• Portuguese: periferia (pt) f
• Romanian: periferie (ro) f
• Russian: перифери́я (ru) f (periferíja), окра́ина (ru) f (okráina)
• Scottish Gaelic: iomall m
• Slovene: rob (sl) m
• Spanish: periferia (es) f
• Turkish: çevre (tr), dolay (tr), etraf (tr), civar (tr), periferi (tr)
• Ukrainian: перифері́я f (peryferíja)

Greek administrative region

• Catalan: perifèria f
• Greek: περιφέρεια (el) f (periféreia)
• Portuguese: periferia (pt) f
• Russian: перифери́я (ru) f (periferíja)
• Slovene: obrobje n
• Turkish: periferi (tr)
• Ukrainian: перифері́я f (peryferíja)

Further reading

• “periphery”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “periphery”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.