| 释义 |
mathematics, n. pl.|mæθɪˈmætɪks|
[pl. of mathematic B. 1. Cf. F. les mathématiques (fem.).
Gr. had the neut. pl. τὰ µαθηµατικά in the sense of mathematical objects, principles, facts, etc., as well as the fem. ἡ µαθηµατική mathematical science, mathematic B. 1. The Fr. and Eng. use of the plural (known from the 16th c.) seems to have originated as an elliptic expression for ‘mathematic sciences’, and to have had at first no connexion with the Gr. use of the neuter plural. The analogy of names of sciences like physics, metaphysics (in which the pl. form is of Gr. origin) has, however, caused the sing. to be in English entirely superseded by the plural; in Fr., which has not the plural form in the other instances, the sing. mathématique survives in use as well as the plural.]
Originally, the collective name for geometry, arithmetic, and certain physical sciences (as astronomy and optics) involving geometrical reasoning. In modern use applied, (a) in a strict sense, to the abstract science which investigates deductively the conclusions implicit in the elementary conceptions of spatial and numerical relations, and which includes as its main divisions geometry, arithmetic, and algebra; and (b) in a wider sense, so as to include those branches of physical or other research which consist in the application of this abstract science to concrete data. When the word is used in its wider sense, the abstract science is distinguished as pure mathematics, and its concrete applications (e.g. in astronomy, various branches of physics, the theory of probabilities) as applied or mixed mathematics.
In early use always construed as a plural, and usually preceded by the. In recent use the is commonly omitted, and the n. is almost always construed as a sing., exc. in (the) higher mathematics.
1581Mulcaster Positions v. (1887) 35 Whose vse [sc. of Drawing] all modelling, all mathematikes, all manuaries do finde and confesse to be to so notorious and so needefull. 1587Holinshed Hist. Scot. 461/1 A learned man in all philosophie, astronomie and the other mathematiks. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 37 The Mathematickes, and the Metaphysickes Fall to them as you find your stomacke serues you. Ibid. ii. i. 82 As cunning In Greeke, Latine, and other Languages, As the other in Musicke and Mathematickes. a1618Raleigh Mahomet (1637) 142 He wrote divers bookes of the Mathematiques. 1641Wilkins Math. Magick i. ii. (1648) 12 Mathematicks..is usually divided into pure and mixed. 1696–7Wallis in Hearne R. Brunne's Langtoft Pref. 147 Mathematicks (at that time..) were scarce looked upon as Academical studies. 1712Bentley Corr. (1842) II. 449 Mathematicks was brought to that height, that [etc.]. 1726Swift Gulliver i. i, Navigation, and other Parts of the Mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel. 1739Johnson Life Boerhaave Wks. IV. 335 A very uncommon knowledge of the mathematicks. 1755Man No. 35. 3 Mathematics derives its accuracy..from logic. 1838De Morgan Ess., Probab. 68 The approximative methods of the higher mathematics. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 271 By the help of mathematics, we form another idea of space. |