Mathematics

== Etymology ==
The word ''mathematics'' comes from [[Ancient Greek]] ''máthēma'' (''{{Lang-grc|{{wikt-lang|en|μάθημα}}|label=none}}''), meaning "that which is learnt",<ref name=EOD_n>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Harper |first=Douglas |date=March 28, 2019 |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/mathematic |title=Mathematic (n.) |dictionary=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130307093926/http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=mathematic&allowed_in_frame=0 |archive-date=March 7, 2013 |access-date=January 25, 2024}}</ref> "what one gets to know", hence also "study" and "science". The word came to have the narrower and more technical meaning of "mathematical study" even in [[Classical antiquity|Classical times]].{{efn|This meaning can be found in Plato's ''Republic'', Book 6 Section 510c.<ref>{{cite book|author=Plato |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Rep.+6.510c&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168 |title=Republic, Book 6, Section 510c |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224152747/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Rep.+6.510c&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |access-date=February 2, 2024}}</ref> However, Plato did not use a ''math-'' word; Aristotle did, commenting on it.<ref>{{cite dictionary|last1=Liddell |first1=Henry George |author1-link=Henry Liddell |last2=Scott |first2=Robert |author2-link=Robert Scott (philologist) |year=1940 |section=μαθηματική |title=A Greek–English Lexicon |title-link=A Greek–English Lexicon |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |section-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=maqhmatiko/s |access-date=February 2, 2024}}</ref>{{better source needed |date=February 2024 |reason=This source doesn't identify when Aristotle comments on a "math-" word.}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas |date=April 20, 2022 |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |title=Mathematics (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/mathematics |access-date=February 2, 2024}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2024|reason=This source doesn't identify when Aristotle comments on a "math-" word.}}}} Its [[adjective]] is ''mathēmatikós'' ({{lang|grc|μαθηματικός}}), meaning "related to learning" or "studious", which likewise further came to mean "mathematical".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Harper |first=Douglas |date=December 22, 2018 |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/mathematical |title=Mathematical (adj.) |dictionary=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126170916/https://www.etymonline.com/word/mathematical |archive-date=November 26, 2022 |access-date=January 25, 2024}}</ref> In particular, ''mathēmatikḗ tékhnē'' ({{lang|grc|μαθηματικὴ τέχνη}}; {{lang-la|ars mathematica}}) meant "the mathematical art".<ref name=EOD_n/>

Similarly, one of the two main schools of thought in [[Pythagoreanism]] was known as the ''mathēmatikoi'' (μαθηματικοί){{emdash}}which at the time meant "learners" rather than "mathematicians" in the modern sense. The Pythagoreans were likely the first to constrain the use of the word to just the study of [[arithmetic]] and geometry. By the time of [[Aristotle]] (384–322&nbsp;BC) this meaning was fully established.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Perisho |first=Margaret W. |date=Spring 1965 |title=The Etymology of Mathematical Terms |journal=[[Pi Mu Epsilon Journal]] |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=62–66 |issn=0031-952X |jstor=24338341 |lccn=58015848 |oclc=1762376}}</ref>

In Latin, and in English until around 1700, the term ''mathematics'' more commonly meant "[[astrology]]" (or sometimes "[[astronomy]]") rather than "mathematics"; the meaning gradually changed to its present one from about 1500 to 1800. This change has resulted in several mistranslations: For example, [[Saint Augustine]]'s warning that Christians should beware of ''mathematici'', meaning "astrologers", is sometimes mistranslated as a condemnation of mathematicians.<ref name="Boas">{{cite book |last=Boas |first=Ralph P. |author-link=Ralph P. Boas Jr. |editor-last1=Alexanderson |editor-first1=Gerald L. |editor-last2=Mugler |editor-first2=Dale H. |year=1995 |chapter=What Augustine Didn't Say About Mathematicians |page=257 |title=Lion Hunting and Other Mathematical Pursuits: A Collection of Mathematics, Verse, and Stories |publisher=[[Mathematical Association of America]] |isbn=978-0-88385-323-8 |lccn=94078313 |oclc=633018890}}</ref>

The apparent [[plural]] form in English goes back to the Latin [[Neuter (grammar)|neuter]] plural {{lang|la|mathematica}} ([[Cicero]]), based on the Greek plural ''ta mathēmatiká'' ({{lang|el|τὰ μαθηματικά}}) and means roughly "all things mathematical", although it is plausible that English borrowed only the adjective ''mathematic(al)'' and formed the noun ''mathematics'' anew, after the pattern of ''[[physics]]'' and ''[[metaphysics]]'', inherited from Greek.<ref>''[[The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology]]'', ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', ''sub'' "mathematics", "mathematic", "mathematics".</ref> In English, the noun ''mathematics'' takes a singular verb. It is often shortened to ''maths''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/maths_n |title=Maths (Noun) |website=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=January 25, 2024}}</ref> or, in North America, ''math''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/math_n3 |title=Math (Noun³) |website=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200404201407/http://oed.com/view/Entry/114982 |archive-date=April 4, 2020 |access-date=January 25, 2024}}</ref>