Etymograph

English

subdiagonal

From sub- + diagonal.

Formed from sub- + diagonal

Proto-Indo-European *upó ‘up; from below’

Proto-Italic *supo ‘under’

Latin sub ‘under, beneath, below’

English sub-

Ancient Greek διαγώνιος ‘from angle to angle’

Latin diagōnālis

Middle French diagonal

English diagonal

Today it means

adj Said of an entry of a square matrix: that it lies anywhere in the lower triangular area below the main diagonal of the matrix.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “subdiagonal”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / subdiagonal