Word of the Week – Mathematics

I love it when I get requests for the Word of the Week. And this one comes from my fantabulous virtual assistant, Rachel, whose husband asked what the history of mathematics might be. Rachel’s response was “To the blog!” But alas, I hadn’t covered this one yet! So my response was, “Word of the Week!”

I love that this is now not only how my family operates, but hers too. 🤣

So then, let’s take a look at mathematic(s).

First, the plural form ending with an -s is quite a bit newer than mathematic, singular, though both mean the same thing. The singular version dates from the 1300s in English, while the plural first appeared around 1580 and ultimately replaced the singular form in the early 1600s. The simple definition is “the science of quantity, which investigates the concepts of numerical and spacial relations.”

Our English word came via French (mathematique–singular), though I imagine it’s no surprise to learn that the French came from Latin (mathematica-plural). In both French and Latin, the words meant what ours meants today. We have to dig back even further to get to the roots, all the way to Ancient Greek.

Greek also had mathematike tekne, which meant “mathematical science,” but here we finally get to the parts we can parse. Greek’s mathematikos is from mathema, which means “science, knowledge, mathematical knowledge, a lesson”…because its root is manthanein, which means “to learn.”

So there we have it. At its foundation, mathematics is about learning, and numbers are some of the most fundamental things we learn about in the world. (There was in fact an Ancient Greek theory that math was so fundamental that it exists in the human mind at birth and rather than being “taught” it like other skills, we instead “discover” it or are reminded of it.)

The shortening to math, interestingly, didn’t happen until the 1890s, and that’s the American version. In the UK, they opted for the plural maths instead, but didn’t do that until 1911. Who knew that was so new?