arc

1. (astronomy) That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves above and below the horizon. [from 14th c.]
2. (geometry) A continuous part of the circumference of a circle (circular arc) or of another curve. [from 16th c.]
3. A curve, in general. [from 17th c.]
4. A band contained within parallel curves, or something of that shape. [from 17th c.]
5. (electrics) A flow of current across an insulating medium; especially a hot, luminous discharge either between two electrodes or as lightning. [from 19th c.]
6. (narratology) Ellipsis of story arc. [from 20th c.] quotations ▼
1. (by extension, Internet slang) A period or phase in a person's life.

I'm hitting the gym three times a week or more at the moment. I'm in my gym bro arc.I miss my drawing arc. I feel like I was much more creative back then.

7. (mathematics) A continuous mapping from a real interval (typically [0, 1]) into a space.
8. (graph theory) A directed edge.
9. (basketball, slang) The three-point line.
10. (film) An arclight.

arc(n.)

late 14c., "part of a curved line," originally in reference to the sun's apparent motion across the sky, from Old French arc "bow, arch, vault" (12c.), from Latin arcus "a bow, arch," from Proto-Italic *arkwo- "bow."

This has Germanic cognates in Gothic arhvazna, Old English earh, Old Norse ör "arrow," from Proto-Germanic *arkw-o- "belonging to a bow." It also has cognates in Greek arkeuthos, Latvian ercis "juniper," Russian rakita, Czech rokyta, Serbo-Croatian rakita "brittle willow." De Vaan sees an Italo-Germanic word for "bow" which can be connected with Balto-Slavic and Greek words for "willow" and "juniper" "under the well-founded assumption that the flexible twigs of juniper or willow were used as bows." The Balto-Slavic and Greek forms point to *arku-; "as with many plant names, this is likely to be a non-IE loanword."

The electrical sense is attested from 1821.