# Etymology of 'arc' as in 'Story arc'

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-arc-as-in-story-arc/377542>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2006, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-arc-as-in-story-arc/377542 "2006-10-23T10:48:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-arc-as-in-story-arc/377542/1 "2006-10-23T10:48:53Z")

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I understand what a _Story arc_ is (a continuous/common developing theme or background story in a series of episodes), I just don’t understand how and why it came to be known by the term ‘arc’ - can anyone give me the dope on this?

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-arc-as-in-story-arc/377542/2 "2006-10-23T12:24:03Z")

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Creative writing instruction has long pictured a typical storyline as looking like the profile of a roller coaster hill: beginning, buildup, climax, end.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-arc-as-in-story-arc/377542/3 "2006-10-23T12:57:46Z")

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So it’s ‘arc’ in the sense of a curved trajectory, not an abbreviation of architecture, or archive, or some other thing? I don’t have any reason or desire to disbelieve you, but I’d like to see a cite.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-arc-as-in-story-arc/377542/4 "2006-10-23T13:48:29Z")

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An earlier thread on this subject:

> **[What is the origin of "story arc"?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=357118)**
>
> “Story arc” is one of my irrational pet peeves, and I want to find out who I can blame. If someone finds out via Google, tell me how you did it! Googling +etymology +“story arc” gave me more information about what a “story arc” is supposed to be,...

I can’t attest to the accuracy of Bochco’s coining the term, but it at least sounds plausible.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-arc-as-in-story-arc/377542/5 "2006-10-23T14:02:40Z")

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According to the OED:

> [@](#):
>
> - orig. Literary Criticism. The principal plot or narrative development of a literary or dramatic work considered in outline form. Now also: spec. (freq. in story arc) a background plot or ongoing storyline in a serial narrative (esp. a television series), within which self-contained episodes are set; an episode or number of episodes which develop such a background story.
> 
> 1962 F. N. MENNEMEIER in P. Demetz Brecht 148 There is no ‘great dramatic arc’ in Mother Courage… In Brecht’s play there is an artfully static structure which carefully balances individual scenes against each other. 1978 G. STEWART in ELH 45 483 In the proliferated death scenes of Bleak House, Dickens brings death as never before into the pages that intervene between the implied oblivion before and after the arc of story, the unvoiced voids of narrative.

Bochco started using it to describe the multi-episode story lines for **Hill Street Blues** , which popularized it in a TV context, and brought the term to the general public.