{"id":675,"date":"2007-06-20T13:32:33","date_gmt":"2007-06-20T13:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/?p=675"},"modified":"2014-11-18T20:23:12","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T12:23:12","slug":"where-does-that-math-word-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/learn-math\/where-does-that-math-word-come-from-675","title":{"rendered":"Where does that math word come from?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is a great resource for the historical background of the terms we use in mathematics: Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics (by \"Jeff570\" - no longer available).<\/p>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>ARITHMETIC is a Greek word transliterated into English as <em>arithmetike<\/em>. It passed into Latin as <em>arithmetica<\/em>. [...] Fibonacci [around 1200, used] the form \"Rismetirca.\" <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And...<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>ASYMPTOTE was used by Apollonius, with a broader meaning than its current definition, referring to any lines which do not meet, in whatever direction they are produced (Smith).<\/p>\n<p>The first citation of the word in the OED is in 1656 in Hobbes' Elements of Philosophy by Thomas Hobbes: \"Asymptotes..come still nearer and nearer, but never touch.\" <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Finally:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>MATHEMATICS. Pythagoras is said to have coined the words philosophy for \"love of wisdom\" and mathematics for \"that which is learned.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"alt\">See the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/learn-math\/where-does-that-math-word-come-from-675#comments\" id=\"comms\">4 Comments<\/a> below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All the history of mathematics terms that you were afraid to ask about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}