
President Lyndon Johnson and Senator J. William Fulbright inspect Richard Anuszkiewicz’s 1963 painting Squaring the Circle at the 1965 White House Arts Festival. Photo: Yoichi Okamoto
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
square the circle
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
idiom: To accomplish what appears to be impossible, especially in satisfying conflicting requirements.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the classical geometric problem of constructing, using only a compass and straightedge, a square equal in area to a given circle. Earliest documented use: 1624.
NOTES:
In classical geometry, to square the circle is to construct a square with the same area as a given circle, using only a compass and straightedge. Mathematicians chased this problem for centuries. In 1882, it was proved impossible to do exactly in a finite number of steps. That has not stopped people, in mathematics or elsewhere, from trying. Anyone who still tries to solve this problem is being completely irrational (just like π).
USAGE:
“I understand, Terence, what a dilemma you had: there seemed no way to square the circle.”
S.R. White; White Ash Ridge; Headline; 2024.