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Steven Schwartzman was born on Independence Day in 1945 and grew up on Long Island. He received his B. A. from Columbia University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He then joined the United States Peace Corps and spent the next two years in Honduras, where he taught mathematics for the first time. Eager to continue teaching in the United States, he earned an M. A. in the teaching of mathematics from Duke University. He spent nine years as a high school mathematics teacher. He later taught mathematics at Austin Community College and French at the University of Texas, where he earned an M.A. in Romance Linguistics. He has published articles in the Mathematics Teacher, the AMATYC Review, and the College Mathematics Journal. Steven Schwartzman has long been involved in the arts, especially photography. In 1980, he published Stereo Infrared Landscapes and Hill Country Women, Bodies of Light, his book of three-dimensional infrared photographs, was awarded a certificate of merit by the Printing Industries of America. He has produced a CD-ROM, Visual Delights, that contains over 5800 digitized images covering a multitude of topics. The Words of Mathematics explains the origins of over 1500 mathematical terms used in English. While other dictionaries of mathematics define technical terms, this book concentrates on where those terms come from and what their literal meanings are. This dictionary is easy to use. Although some of the entries are highly technical, the book explains them in plain English. The introduction gives an overview of how the ancient language known as Indo-European developed into Latin, Greek, French, and English, the languages from which most of our mathematical vocabulary has been derived. Another section discusses the many ways in which mathematicians have borrowed and created their specialized vocabulary over the centuries. A glossary explains historical and linguistic terms used throughout the book. This dictionary is an indispensable reference for every library that serves teachers and students of mathematics. It is a natural source of information for courses in the history of mathematics and for mathematics courses intended for liberal arts students. At the individual level, whether you are a teacher or a student of mathematics, a lover of words, or both; whether you are a veteran mathematician or a novice, you will find material in this book appropriate to your level of language and mathematics. You will certainly find many things you never knew about mathematics and language.

ISBN 0-88385-511-9

though the w is no longer pronounced in the basic English word, it continues to be pronounced in quite a few other related words: twain, twice, twenty, twelve (q.v.), twilight (= the interval between two times of day), twine (double thread), twill (also double thread), twig (a little branch that splits in two), betwixt and between (q.v.). In Latin the original Indo-European root developed into duo as well as bi- (originally dui-); each form appears in many words that English has borrowed from Latin. Also from Latin is dubious (trying to decide between two choices) and the related noun doubt. In Greek, the Indo-European root developed into duo and related forms. From Greek English has borrowed words like dyad and dodecagon. The ancient Greeks believed 2 to be the first number because they considered 1 a generator of numbers but not a number itself. The integer 2 is the first and only even prime. [48] type (noun): from Greek tupos "a mold, a die," from the Indo-European root (s)teu- "to push, stick, knock, beat." A mold is an object which is "knocked or beaten out." In traditional printing, each piece of movable type is made from a mold. When we say metaphorically that a certain object "fits the mold," we are saying that it is of a certain type. Many mathematical objects are grouped by type. For example, the conic sections are of three types, depending on eccentricity. In tilings using polygonal tiles, there are 21 possible types of vertex. [214]

Umbilic.

in contrast, a binary operation like multiplication requires two numbers. [148] undecillion (numeral): patterned after billion by replacing the bi- with the root of Latin undecim "eleven," a compound of unus "one" and decent "ten." Since in most countries a billion is the second power of a million, an undecillion was defined as the eleventh power of a million, or 1066. In the United States, however, a billion is 109, and an undecillion adds nine groups of three zeroes, making an undecillion equal to 1036. [148, 34, 72, 151] under (adverb, preposition): a native English word, from the Indo-European root ndher- "under." Related borrowings from Latin include inferior and infra-. In common English, under often means "less than." For example, 1 and 2 are the only positive integers under 3. [140] unicursal (adjective): the first component is from Latin /-. from the Indo-European root oi-no"one." The second component is from Latin cursus, past participle of currere "to run"; the IndoEuropean root is kers- "to run." A unicursal graph can be traced in its entirety and with no duplications by running a pencil over it one time (i.e., without lifting the pencil and resuming the tracing elsewhere). [148,95] uniform (adjective): the first element is from Latin unus, from the Indo-European root oi-no- "one." The second element is from Latin forma "form, shape," which may be borrowed from Greek morphe "shape"; another hypothesis links it to Latin fcrire

u
ultratilter (noun): the first component is from Latin ultra "beyond," from the Indo-European root a/-, of the same meaning. The second component is filter (q.v.). An ultrafilter is a filter that isn't a proper subset of any filter. [6, 161] umbilic (noun, adjective), umbilical (adjective): from Latin umbilicus "navel." The Indo-European root underlying both umbilicus and native English navel is nobh-, alternate form ombh-, "navel." An umbilic point of a surface is a point at which the surface bends in like a navel. unary (adjective): from Latin unus "one," from the Indo-European root oi-no- "one." In mathematics a unary operation or function acts on one number at a time. Taking the absolute value is a unary operation;

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