GRAPH-WIDE SEARCH
MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL3 source sections across 1 headword matching “Math”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
mathEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Clipping of mathematics.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗mathEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
From Middle English math, from Old English mǣþ (“a mowing, that which is mown, cutting of grass”), from Proto-Germanic *mēþą (“a mowing”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂meh₁- (“to mow”); equivalent to mow + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with German Mahd (“a mowing, reaping”), West Frisian mêd (“area of land that can be mown in one day; domain, realm”). Related also to Old English mǣd (“mead, meadow, pasture”). See meadow.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗mathEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
Contraction of matha.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Browse the independently attributed sources →015
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
noundossier summary
algebra
A mathematical discipline whose English name travels through Medieval Latin from Arabic al-jabr, restoration or completion.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · adjectivehistorical form
arithmetic
The art or practice of counting and calculation; transmitted from Greek arithmos “number” through Latin and French.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verbdossier summary
calculate
To determine mathematically or estimate, borrowed from a Latin family built around counting with pebbles.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
calculator
A person or device that calculates, inherited from a medieval human-reckoner word and the Latin counting-pebble family.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
calculus
A mathematical system, a method of reasoning, or a bodily stone; borrowed from a Latin word for a pebble used in counting.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗025
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
algebra
a mathematical discipline of symbolic and structural relations
- DATE
- 1551–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Medieval Latin / Indo-European
algebra
restoration; bone-setting; the mathematical art
- DATE
- 12th–16th centuries
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
arithmetic
the art, practice, or branch of mathematics concerned with numbers and calculation
- DATE
- mid-13th century–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
calculus
a mathematical method; a system of reckoning; also a bodily stone
- DATE
- 1666–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle English / Indo-European
calkelatour
one who counts or computes; a mathematician
- DATE
- Middle English, 14th–15th centuries
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
033
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
resolvedestablishedposition text
Is the bone-setting sense a fake folk story?
No. Arabic and Romance transmission includes reunion of broken parts and bone-setting. That real medical sense should not be confused with the mathematical title history.
resolvedprobableposition text
Is algorithm originally a Greek mathematical word?
No. The lexical line reaches the Arabic name al-Khwārizmī through Medieval Latin. Greek arithmos likely influenced the later spelling, but it is not the source of the name.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 1
RANK 211GRADE A−contrarian claim
Higher mathematics began with a pebble.
Latin calculus named a counting-board pebble and a calculation. Its deeper stone ancestry is still disputed between a limestone derivation and a possible shared Mediterranean substrate source.
043
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
scholarly reference20 CLAIM LINKS
Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics: A
John Aldrich et al. / 2026
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗editorial reference3 CLAIM LINKS
The Word Origins of Algebra, Calculus, and Other Math Terms
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2017
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly reference0 CLAIM LINKS
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi
J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson / 1999
publisherAUDIT EVERY USE ↗053
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints DECIMAL in the head phrase DECIMAL Fraction and begins its mathematical definition.
decimal / decimal / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
Source-reported title phrase in al-Khwārizmī's mathematical work
al-jabr / algebra / c. 825
Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics: Areporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
Source-reported English record for the algorithm spelling
algorithm / algorithm / 1699
Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics: Areporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.