What does limacon mean in French?

1 Answer
Aug 5, 2015

Small snail.

Explanation:

In old French, limaçon is the diminutive form of limaz. Limaz comes from the Latin limax, or snail.

Lots of Limacon Curves do look like snails!

Although Dürer, who first investigated the curve in the early 1500s, was German, the name is French because it was named by Gilles-Personne Roberval over 100 years later.