The names ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola were supplied by Apollonius, and were borrowed from the early Pythagorean terminology of application of areas. When the Pythagoreans applied a rectangle to a line segment (that is, placed the base of the rectangle along the line segment, with one end of the Base coinciding with one end of the segment) they said they had a case of “ellipsis,” “parabola,” or “hyperbola” according as the base of the applied rectangle fell short of the line segment, exactly coincided with it, or exceeded it.