mathematicaladj.n.

Brit.

/ˌmaθ(ə)ˈmatᵻkl/, U.S.

/ˈˌmæθ(ə)ˈmædək(ə)l/

Forms: late Middle English mathematicalle, 1500s matematical, 1500s mathametical, 1500s methematycall, 1500s–1600s mathematicall, 1500s– mathematical, 1600s mathemattical, 1700s mathimatical.

Origin: Either (i) a borrowing from Latin. Or (ii) a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element. Etymons: Latin mathematicalis ; Latin mathēmaticus , -al suffix¹.

Etymology: Either < post-classical Latin mathematicalis mathematical (14th cent. in a British source, although earlier in plural use as noun) or independently < classical Latin mathēmaticus mathematic adj. + -al suffix¹.With use as plural noun in sense ‘mathematical things’ (see sense B. 2) compare ancient Greek τὰ μαθηματικά (Aristotle Metaphysics 1076^a 17 in this sense), post-classical Latin mathematicalia (from late 13th cent. in British sources). Aristotle refers to Platonist doctrine but in the passage of the Republic to which he appears to be alluding (509d–511e) neither τὰ μαθηματικά nor its cognates are used. With mathematical line (see sense A. 1d), compare ancient Greek γραμμὴ μαθηματική (Aristotle).

A. adj.

a. Of, relating to, or of the nature of mathematics.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective]

mathematicc1450

mathematical?a1475

posological1817

philomathical1828

?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1874) V. 27 Ptholomeus, a man nobly erudite in speculacions mathematicalle [L. in mathematicis speculationibus].

1530 J. Rastell New Bk. Purgatory ii. xix. sig. e2 The methematycall scyens.

a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 11 The conclusyons of artys mathematical are ever referryd to theyr pryncypullys.

1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. xii. sig. 357^v The great Mechanicall vse (besides Mathematicall considerations) which [etc.].

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. iii. 76 A probleme Mathematicall, to finde out the difference of houres in different places.

1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iv. iv. 283 The Knowledge we may have of mathematical Truths, is not only certain, but real Knowledge.

1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous iii. 159 Are the Difficulties that attend the Doctrine of incommensurable Quantities, of the Angle of Contact..or the like, sufficient to make you hold out against Mathematical Demonstration?

1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers 607 Mathematical notions are formed in the understanding by an abstraction of another kind, out of the rude perceptions of our senses.

1843 J. Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) I. 21 We will listen to no comments on Newton from people who have no mathematical knowledge.

1878 R. T. H. Bartley tr. P. Topinard Anthropol. 297 The craniometer substitutes mathematical data for the uncertain data founded on judgement and opinion.

1920 A. S. Eddington Space, Time & Gravitation ix. 139 Mathematical deduction of these equations.

1991 Sci. News 21 Dec. 415 (advt.) Four interesting mathematical stories or puzzles each month.

b. Of a person: expert or gifted in mathematics; that studies or teaches mathematics. Of a school, faculty, etc.: devoted to the teaching of mathematics.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective] > skilled in studying or teaching

mathematical1522

mathematica1680

numerate1959

1522 J. Skelton Why come ye nat to Courte 705 But let mi masters mathematical Tell you the rest.

a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) i. f. 5^v Marke all Mathematicall heades, which be onely and wholy bent to those sciences.

1622 H. Peacham Compl. Gentleman ix. 77 Mr. Doctor Hood, sometime Mathematicall Lecturer in London.

1692 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) II. 327 The governour of Christs hospitall waited on the king with the mathematical boys.

1713 J. Ward Young Mathematician's Guide (ed. 2) A 1 b H. Ditton, Master of the New Mathematical School in Christ's Hospital.

1768 J. Cremer Jrnl. 27 Jan. in R. R. Bellamy Ramblin' Jack (1936) 46 John Ham was afterwards one of the first Mathimatical Masters to the Royall Accamedy [sic]..at Portsmouth.

1821 T. Carlyle Early Lett. (1886) I. 362 I have been dining and guffaaing with one Nichol, a Mathematical Teacher here.

1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 12/1 The mathematical student.

1867 G. H. Lewes Hist. Philos. II. 153 The mathematical cultivators of Physics and the deductive cultivators of Philosophy.

1939 W. A. Richardson Techn. College xxv. 476 There are certain high-grade technicians, e.g. chemists, physicists, mathematical engineers, who will be engaged in the more elaborate design problems.

1992 Locus Aug. 17/2 A team of mathematical whiz-kids set to work on the aliens' ‘time window’ project.

c. Designed for use in mathematics; spec. used in drawing geometrical figures. Esp. in mathematical instrument.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematical instruments > [noun]

mathematical instrument1588

rectificatory1593

pantometer1597

sector1598

holometer1696

multiplier1875

horn-centre1879

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective] > adopted for mathematical use

mathematical1588

mathematic1664

1588 T. Hariot Briefe Rep. Virginia sig. E4 Most thinges they sawe with vs, as Mathematicall instruments, sea compasses, the vertue of the loadstone in drawing yron.

1663 A. Cowley College in Wks. (1721) II. 567 A Mathematical Chamber furnish'd with all Sorts of Mathematical Instruments, being an Appendix to a Library.

1696 London Gaz. No. 3224/4 Lost.., a small Pocket-Book of Mathematical Paper.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iii. ii. 18 A large Table filled with Globes and Spheres, and Mathematical Instruments.

1789 J. Pilkington View Derbyshire I. viii. 405 Mathematical rulers and excisemen's gauging sticks.

1823 Ld. Byron Let. 26 Dec. (1981) XI. 83 The Mathematical instruments are thrown away—none of the Greeks know a problem from a poker.

1849 H. M. Noad Lect. Electr. (ed. 3) 284 A celebrated mathematical instrument-maker.

1919 S. Paget Sir V. Horsley 189 R. H. Clarke..also devised a stereotaxic apparatus, probably the most complex of all the mathematical instruments of physiology.

1995 Independent 21 Oct. (Weekend section) 22/2 The sad tale of the stingray, whose skin was routinely used in the 18th and 19th centuries in the manufacture of spectacle cases, mathematical instrument cases and the like.

d. As understood or defined in mathematics; being what the term denotes in mathematics. See also mathematical point n. at Compounds.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective] > recognition or import within

mathematic1609

mathematical1641

1641 Ld. Digby Speeches High Court Parl. 14 A Concentring of all the Royall lynes in his Person, as undisputably as any Mathematicall ones in Euclide.

a1656 J. Hales Golden Remains (1659) ii. 10 This Dispute for its endlessness was like the Mathematical line.

1783 B. Porteus Serm. v. 116 How two mathematical lines, indefinitely produced, can be for ever approaching each other, and yet never meet.

a1832 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) II. 397 In future probability means mathematical probability, unless the contrary be specified.

1840 D. Lardner Treat. Geom. i. 11 The notion of a mathematical surface may be formed by imagining a mathematical line to move in any manner in space.

1921 F. H. Knight Risk, Uncertainty & Profit ii. 46 If risk were exclusively of the nature of a known chance or mathematical probability, there could be no reward in risk-taking.

1989 PC Mag. (U.K. ed.) May 121/1 Unlike conventional languages, they offer mathematical objects and functions as built-in primitives.

2. Designating or relating to objects apprehended not by sense perception but by thought or abstraction (abstraction n. 3); (more generally) †unreal, imaginary (obsolete). Later also, in some interpretations of Platonic philosophy: designating objects (such as those of mathematics) belonging to a category intermediate between universal ideas and perceptible objects (see B. 2).Originally Theology, in debates about the nature of Christ's bodily presence in the Eucharist: designating a body as possessing, or as consisting of, purely spatial accidents (accident n. 1a) (now historical and rare).

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [adjective] > abstract or relating to abstraction

mathematical1547

abstract1557

abstracted1605

inconcretea1626

nonsensible1838

unembodied1841

abstractional1842

discrete1851

1547 J. Hooper Declar. Christe viii. H viij b Then it is no body for a trew body phisicall and matematical: as Christes body is: cannot be except it ocopi place.

1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 700/2 He..in effect denieth the verity of Christes blessed body vpon the crosse, calling it Mathematical.

1616 T. Granger Syntagma Grammaticum Ep. Ded. sig. B8 And so this all, is a certaine Monogrammus, mathematicall..or imaginarie, and vniuersall man.

a1642 R. Callis Reading of Statute of Sewers (1647) iv. 191 This Statute requireth an actual habitation or resciancy, and not a Mathematical or Imaginary resciancy.

1662 J. Chandler tr. J. B. van Helmont Oriatrike 150 A Mathematicall corporality or bodiliness.

1897 M. H. Dziewicki Wyclif's De Logica (1899) III. Introd. 26 Christ's Body..is present without either position or shape. The bread is not annihilated; what remains is a purely mathematical body, but not nothing.

1909 Mind 18 565 Within the world of Ideas there is now an essential cleavage manifest, in fact there is a certain inconsistency in making these mathematical concepts Ideas at all.

1946 Philos. Rev. 55 190 The assertion of mathematical objects separate from both the ideas and sensible things and intermediate between them.

1996 W. L. Reese Dict. Philos. & Relig. (new ed.) 584/2 The shift..is from image to individual things to mathematical and other semi-abstract entities to universal forms.

†3. Astrological. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > astrology > [adjective]

astrological1538

mathematical?1549

mathematic1593

astrologian1621

astrologic1648

uranical1671

philomathical1709

astrologous1817

?1549 J. Hooper Declar. 10 Commandm. vi. 90 Thowghe I..damne this damnable art Mathematicall, I do not damne souche other artes and sciences as be associatyd and annexid with this vnlawfull Astrologie.

1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie iii. viii. 143 That Egyptian and Chaldæan wisedome Mathematicall, wherewith Moses and Daniell were furnished.

1673 H. Hickman Hist. Quinq-articularis 395 He pretended a full perswasion of a Mathematical fate or destiny, yet..he was out of measure afraid of Thunders.

†4. Mechanical. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > [adjective]

mathematical1565

mechanical1567

organical1594

mechanic1624

machinal1680

mechanistic1884

1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare ix. 419 The Mathematical Dooue, that Architas Tarentinus made, that was hable to flie alone.

1833 Proc. Old Bailey 4 July 6th Sess. 605/2 Philip John Birch , mathematical-instrument-maker, Edward James Burchell , broker, [etc.] gave the prisoner a good character.

a. Resembling what is found in mathematics; rigorously exact. Of a person: precise, calculating, fastidious.In quot. 1639: (probably) of proven efficacy.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > freedom from error, correctness > exactness, accuracy, precision > [adjective] > of calculated result

evena1400

justc1400

mathematical1604

exacta1616

mathematic1664

strict1791

1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies i. x. 34 We should yet confesse, that this reason were very peremptorie and Mathematicall.

1631 B. Jonson Divell is Asse i. iv, in Wks. II. 101 Raise him up by degrees, Gently, and hold him there too, you can doe it. Shew your selfe now, a Mathematicall broker.

1639 T. de Gray Compl. Horseman To Rdr. sig. C2 Such Cures..whereof I have had no tryall or experience at all..and therefore dare not avouch or cry them up for mathematicall, albeit they do appear unto me to be probably good.

1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity iv. 10 It will follow with certitude plainly Mathematical.

1693 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. vii. 17 I suppose all the Particles of Matter to be..situated in an exact and mathematical evenness.

1809 S. T. Coleridge Friend 12 Oct. 140 A Theory conducted throughout with mathematical precision.

1847 T. Medwin Life Shelley II. 203 A cold, selfish, mathematical unoriginal, like Hobbes.

1873 T. Hardy Pair of Blue Eyes II. x. 224 Setting down the cup with mathematical exactness upon the spot from which he had raised it.

1963 J. Fowles Collector (1989) (BNC) 223 I still believe in a God. But he's so remote, so cold, so mathematical.

1983 R. Barnard Little Victims (1993) (BNC) 68 He arranged the meal with mathematical precision on a plate.

b. Exactly regular. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > conformity to or with a pattern, etc. > [adjective] > conforming to a standard rule

rightOE

justc1384

verya1425

orderly1542

ruled1551

normatic1598

formal1635

solemn1639

regular1643

mathematical1776

reglementary1800

rule-right1877

1776 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music I. 449 The voice varied a little up and down, and did not strictly keep to one mathematical line of tone.

1818 W. Hazlitt Lect. Eng. Poets i. 5 Plato banished the poets from his Commonwealth, lest their descriptions of the natural man should spoil his mathematical man.

1881 J. Hawthorne Fortune's Fool (1883) i. xiv Within are straight paths and mathematical grass-plots.

1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood 11 The bare hill-tops..skirted with methodically-planned woods of selected conifers, and girdled with mathematical stone dykes.

1951 J. Jones From Here to Eternity xxviii. 426 Then the trucks were out on the open highway, riding..past the mathematical fields of pineapple.

†6. Geometrical; diagrammatic. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > geometry > [adjective]

geometricalc1392

geometrialc1550

geometric1609

mathematical1614

mathematica1680

1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. ii. xiii. §7. 434 Cosmographers in their descriptions of the world..fill the same with strange beastes, birdes, and fishes, and with Mathematicall lines.

1656 A. Cowley To Dr. Scarborough in Pindaric Odes vi. (note) Archimedes..being found in his Study drawing Mathematical Lines for the making of some new Engines to preserve the Town.

B. n.

†1.

a. A mathematician. Also: an astrologer; a learned person. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > astrology > [noun] > astrologer

astronomienc1330

astrologianc1400

astrologue1487

calker1535

mathematical1545

mathematiciana1576

mathematist1579

astrologer1581

artist1584

mathematicc1604

astrologomage1635

astrologist1683

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > knowledge of > one who has

mathematician?a1475

mathematical1545

mathematic1547

algebrician1579

computist1595

algebraist1614

philomathematic1621

Archimedesa1649

algorist1656

analyst1656

fluxionist1734

calculist1829

metamathematician1935

numerical analyst1956

1545 in J. Schäfer Early Mod. Eng. Lexicogr. (1989) II. (at cited word) The Mathematicalles tyme begynneth with the Sonne sett.

1567 R. Mulcaster tr. J. Fortescue Learned Commendation Lawes Eng. f. 21^v Thei are certein uniuersall propositions, which thei that be learned in the Lawes of Englande, likewise the Mathematicals do terme Maximes.

1577 H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. I. ii. ii. sig. H.ij^v/1 The..signes in the firmament shall be strange Gods, if we being deceiued with the Mathematicals shall wholy hang on them.

1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. viii. 107 Protagoras was banished Athens for it; and the Mathematicals were vtterly condemned for it.

b. In plural. Mathematics; astrology. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > astrology > [noun]

estellationc1300

astrologya1393

astronomyc1400

mathematicals1563

astrologics1569

astronomicals1658

uranics1671

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun]

mathematica1387

mathesisa1475

mathematics?1545

mathematicals1563

posology1817

math1847

maths1911

1563 J. Shute First Groundes Archit. sig. Aii^v By a sertaine kinred and affinitie [it] is knit vnto all the Mathematicalles which sciences and knowledges are frendes.

1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xxx. f. 375^v The rare knowledge of Mathematicalls, and other hydden and secrete Artes.

1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits viii. 103 From a good imagination, spring all the Arts and Sciences..: such are Poetrie, Eloquence, Musicke,..the Mathematicals, Astrologie [etc.].

1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits viii. 117 They profit well in the Mathematicals, and in Astrologie, because they haue a good imagination.

a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. ix. §1. 295 Mathematicals are proportioned vnto diuinitie, as the shadow to the Body.

2. Esp. in Platonic philosophy: a mathematical entity, object, body, etc. (see sense A. 2). Usually in plural.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > mathematical objects

mathematical1555

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 324^v Such vniforme partes as are in mathematicals.

1904 Athenæum 23 Apr. 521/3 Dr. Caird is..right..in rejecting the ascription to Plato of the conception of mathematicals as an intermediate grade of being between ideas and sensibles. [Caird's own words were ‘mathematical principles’.]

1911 Mind 20 252 Already in the Republic we hear of a third order of existents intermediate between these two, namely the mathematicals.

1921 Mind 30 216 Is not this enough to explain why on Aristotle's showing the Platonic εἶδος is ‘separate’ from the ‘mathematicals’, and both from sensibles?

1982 MLN 97 181 The complex and still highly controversial topic of the relationship between the Ideas and mathematicals in Plato (and his successors).

Compounds

mathematical geography n. the application of mathematics to geography, now esp. by means of models and statistical analysis.

ΚΠ

1740 (title) Geography reformed: or, a new system of general geography according to an accurate analysis of the science,..In four parts. I. Of the nature and principles of geography;..II. Of mathematical geography; [etc.].

1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Math. Geogr. i. 1/2 Mathematical Geography is that branch of the general science which is derived from the application of mathematical truths to the figure of the earth.

1888 Science 21 Sept. 142/2 Mathematical geography forms the first part. This is followed by meteorology, oceanology, geophysics, and biology.

1939 E. D. Laborde tr. E. de Martonne Shorter Physical Geogr. (rev. ed.) 1 To draw these representations—or maps—correctly, man is led on to the calculation of the shape of the Earth; and thus mathematical geography came to be studied by the Ionian philosophers.

2006 M. W. Jackson Harmonious Triads ii. 15 He offered lectures on geometry, physical and mathematical geography, and natural history at the University of Wittenberg.

mathematical induction n. logical induction as applied to mathematical proof; chiefly spec. with reference to the principle that if a proposition P(n) is true when n takes a particular value m, and if for all integer values of n greater than or equal to m, P(n) implies P(n + 1), then P(n) is true for all integers greater than or equal to m.

ΚΠ

1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 466/1 An instance of mathematical induction occurs in every equation of differences, in every recurring series, &c.

1900 Amer. Math. Monthly 7 35 Mathematical Induction..is a method of proof used where a primary operation and a secondary law have produced the same series of results to see if the supposed secondary law is valid.

1991 C. B. Boyer & U. C. Merzbach Hist. Math. (ed. 2) xvii. 355 In fact, mathematical induction, or reasoning by recurrence, sometimes is referred to as ‘Fermatian induction’, to distinguish it from scientific, or ‘Baconian,’ induction.

2015 W. Hodge Infl. of Augustus De Morgan 11 The editors of the Penny Cyclopedia..in 1838 invited two authors to write, one (De Morgan) about mathematical induction and one (Hamilton?) about logical induction.

mathematical linguistics n. the branch of linguistics concerned with the application of mathematical models and procedures to the analysis of linguistic structure.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > other specific branches or schools

historical linguistics1871

functional grammar1894

applied linguistics1922

functionalism1935

prelinguistics1949

metalinguistics1951

mathematical linguistics1955

systemic linguistics1958

computational linguistics1961

emic1962

microsociolinguistics1968

stratificationalism1968

creolistics1970

macrolinguistics1972

1955 Harvard Univ. Catal. 1955–6 161 Seminar in Mathematical Linguistics.

1964 E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. vii. 145 At several universities..courses in ‘mathematical linguistics’ are offered.

1972 R. R. K. Hartmann & F. C. Stork Dict. Lang. & Linguistics 137 Mathematical linguistics may be said to begin with the counting of linguistic units such as phonemes, graphemes, or vocabulary items.

mathematical linguist n. a person who is an expert in or student of mathematical linguistics.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > other specific branches or schools > student or adherent of

mathematical linguist1951

stratificationalist1965

computational linguist1966

Firthian1981

1951 Language 27 221 There is a growing cleavage between the mathematical linguists, or metalinguists, and the physical linguists, whom I should call just plain linguists.

1960 Jrnl. Symbolic Logic 25 34 Refinements of sentential structure that are of interest to the mathematical linguist.

mathematical logic n. logic that is mathematical in its method, using symbols and following definite and explicit rules of derivation; modern or symbolic logic.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > predicate or propositional logic > [noun] > mathematical or symbolic logic

mathematical logic1853

symbolic logic1856

logic1903

logistic1918

1853 F. S. Mines Presbyterian Clergyman Contents p. vii No mathematical logic.

1864 A. De Morgan in Trans. Cambr. Philos. Soc. 10 176/2 This mathematical logic..will commend itself to the educated world.

1880 J. Venn in Princeton Rev. 248 What with the logicians who hate mathematics, and the mathematicians who despise logic, a theory of so-called mathematical logic does not find many friends.

1908 B. Russell in Amer. Jrnl. Math. 30 222 (title) Mathematical logic as based on the theory of types.

1990 Sci. Amer. July 82/1 Although philosophy and mathematical logic chiefly engaged him, he also contributed to economics..and semantics.

mathematical logician n. a person who is an expert in or student of mathematical logic.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > predicate or propositional logic > [noun] > mathematical or symbolic logic > adherent of

mathematical logician1851

symbolic logician1903

logicista1910

logistician1932

1851 A. De Morgan in Trans. Cambr. Philos. Soc. 9 110 There is no occasion for the mathematical logician to pay the least deference to the Christian followers of Aristotle; the master himself was a mathematician.

1903 B. Russell Princ. Math. iii. 457 But now, thanks mainly to the mathematical logicians, formal logic is enriched by several forms of reasoning not reducible to the syllogism.

1982 A. J. Ayer Philos. in 20th Cent. v. 16 What most mathematical logicians would regard as the mass of acceptable results.

Mathematical Markup Language n. Computing a markup language used for the encoding and display of mathematical notation, esp. on the World Wide Web (abbreviated MathML).

ΚΠ

1997 Information Week (Nexis) 13 Oct. 8 a Two such standard data schemes under design are a Chemical Markup Language..and a Mathematical Markup Language for mathematical notation.

1998 InfoWorld (Nexis) 2 Mar. 22 With the Mathematical markup Language (MathML) upgraded to a proposed recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) last week, mathematical expressions will finally be able to be transported across the Web.

mathematical model n. see model n. 8a.

mathematical philosophy n. the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of mathematics.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > mathematical philosophy > [noun]

mathematical philosophy1832

metamathematics1890

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > philosophy of

mathematical philosophy1832

1832 A. Johnson tr. W. G. Tennemann Man. Hist. Philos. 64 He [sc. Pythagoras] was led to adopt a sort of Mathematical Philosophy, which gave to his school also the name of Mathematical.

1879 W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 141 Clifford's..chapters on the ‘Philosophy of the Pure Sciences’..form as luminous an introduction to mathematical philosophy as was ever written.

1919 B. Russell (title) Introduction to mathematical philosophy.

1989 R. Penrose Emperor's New Mind (1991) iv. 116 I have briefly described the three main streams of present-day mathematical philosophy: formalism, Platonism, and intuitionism.

mathematical physics n. the branch of physics in which mathematical representations are used in the study of physical systems.

ΚΠ

1847 J. Herapath Math. Physics I. 1 There are..certain branches of natural philosophy the phenomena of which are capable of being estimated in numbers, and of being embodied..into mathematical laws. These..we therefore designate Mathematical Physics, or the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.

1903 Amer. Math. Monthly 10 149 He was appointed, in 1871, to the Professorship of Mathematical Physics in Yale.

1992 Accountancy Dec. 26 He left university with a first class honours degree and a PhD in mathematical physics.

mathematical point n. a point having a position but no magnitude in any dimension.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > geometry > point > [noun]

pointa1398

prick1532

sign1570

punctuma1592

punct1638

mathematical point1659

origin1723

fixed point1778

lattice point1857

pole1879

point of closure1956

1659 H. More Immortality of Soul ii. i. 115 By a meer point of Matter I doe not mean a meer Mathematicall point, but a perfect Parvitude, or the least reality of which Matter can consist.

1739 D. Hume Treat. Human Nature I. iv. 410 Neither ought a desire, tho' indivisible, to be consider'd as a mathematical point.

1844 M. Faraday in Philos. Mag. 24 141 In Boscovitch's theory a disappears, or is a mere mathematical point.

1990 R. Morris Edges of Sci. iv. x. 202 According to general relativity, the singularity is a mathematical point.

mathematical programming n. the theory and application of mathematical methods for choosing, from a defined set of alternatives, the solution that best satisfies predetermined criteria.

ΚΠ

1953 R. Dorfman in Amer. Econ. Rev. 43 797 This paper is intended to set forth the leading ideas of mathematical programming.

1974 P. R. Adby & A. M. Dempster Introd. Optimization Methods v. 120 The techniques for such problems constitute the bulk of the computational aspects of constrained optimization, or mathematical programming.

1991 A. Noble in C. Bondi New Applic. Math. x. 227 The basic data (d_i, s_j and c_y) are set out in Table 10.4 (usually called a tableau in mathematical programming jargon).

Derivatives

matheˈmaticalness n. rare = mathematicality n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > quality of

mathematicalness1698

ethnomathematics1981

1698 R. Ferguson View of Ecclesiastick in Socks & Buskins 99 The Art and Mathematicalness of Thinking.

1991 New Scientist 16 Feb. 56/4 Even here, where the ‘mathematicalness’ of the performance is forced on you, the dance is more absorbing.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	mathematical
释义	mathematicaladj.n. Brit. /ˌmaθ(ə)ˈmatᵻkl/, U.S. /ˈˌmæθ(ə)ˈmædək(ə)l/ Forms: late Middle English mathematicalle, 1500s matematical, 1500s mathametical, 1500s methematycall, 1500s–1600s mathematicall, 1500s– mathematical, 1600s mathemattical, 1700s mathimatical. Origin: Either (i) a borrowing from Latin. Or (ii) a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element. Etymons: Latin mathematicalis ; Latin mathēmaticus , -al suffix¹. Etymology: Either < post-classical Latin mathematicalis mathematical (14th cent. in a British source, although earlier in plural use as noun) or independently < classical Latin mathēmaticus mathematic adj. + -al suffix¹.With use as plural noun in sense ‘mathematical things’ (see sense B. 2) compare ancient Greek τὰ μαθηματικά (Aristotle Metaphysics 1076^a 17 in this sense), post-classical Latin mathematicalia (from late 13th cent. in British sources). Aristotle refers to Platonist doctrine but in the passage of the Republic to which he appears to be alluding (509d–511e) neither τὰ μαθηματικά nor its cognates are used. With mathematical line (see sense A. 1d), compare ancient Greek γραμμὴ μαθηματική (Aristotle). A. adj. 1. a. Of, relating to, or of the nature of mathematics. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective] mathematicc1450 mathematical?a1475 posological1817 philomathical1828 ?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1874) V. 27 Ptholomeus, a man nobly erudite in speculacions mathematicalle [L. in mathematicis speculationibus]. 1530 J. Rastell New Bk. Purgatory ii. xix. sig. e2 The methematycall scyens. a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 11 The conclusyons of artys mathematical are ever referryd to theyr pryncypullys. 1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. xii. sig. 357^v The great Mechanicall vse (besides Mathematicall considerations) which [etc.]. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. iii. 76 A probleme Mathematicall, to finde out the difference of houres in different places. View more context for this quotation 1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iv. iv. 283 The Knowledge we may have of mathematical Truths, is not only certain, but real Knowledge. 1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous iii. 159 Are the Difficulties that attend the Doctrine of incommensurable Quantities, of the Angle of Contact..or the like, sufficient to make you hold out against Mathematical Demonstration? 1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers 607 Mathematical notions are formed in the understanding by an abstraction of another kind, out of the rude perceptions of our senses. 1843 J. Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) I. 21 We will listen to no comments on Newton from people who have no mathematical knowledge. 1878 R. T. H. Bartley tr. P. Topinard Anthropol. 297 The craniometer substitutes mathematical data for the uncertain data founded on judgement and opinion. 1920 A. S. Eddington Space, Time & Gravitation ix. 139 Mathematical deduction of these equations. 1991 Sci. News 21 Dec. 415 (advt.) Four interesting mathematical stories or puzzles each month. b. Of a person: expert or gifted in mathematics; that studies or teaches mathematics. Of a school, faculty, etc.: devoted to the teaching of mathematics. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective] > skilled in studying or teaching mathematical1522 mathematica1680 numerate1959 1522 J. Skelton Why come ye nat to Courte 705 But let mi masters mathematical Tell you the rest. a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) i. f. 5^v Marke all Mathematicall heades, which be onely and wholy bent to those sciences. 1622 H. Peacham Compl. Gentleman ix. 77 Mr. Doctor Hood, sometime Mathematicall Lecturer in London. 1692 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) II. 327 The governour of Christs hospitall waited on the king with the mathematical boys. 1713 J. Ward Young Mathematician's Guide (ed. 2) A 1 b H. Ditton, Master of the New Mathematical School in Christ's Hospital. 1768 J. Cremer Jrnl. 27 Jan. in R. R. Bellamy Ramblin' Jack (1936) 46 John Ham was afterwards one of the first Mathimatical Masters to the Royall Accamedy [sic]..at Portsmouth. 1821 T. Carlyle Early Lett. (1886) I. 362 I have been dining and guffaaing with one Nichol, a Mathematical Teacher here. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 12/1 The mathematical student. 1867 G. H. Lewes Hist. Philos. II. 153 The mathematical cultivators of Physics and the deductive cultivators of Philosophy. 1939 W. A. Richardson Techn. College xxv. 476 There are certain high-grade technicians, e.g. chemists, physicists, mathematical engineers, who will be engaged in the more elaborate design problems. 1992 Locus Aug. 17/2 A team of mathematical whiz-kids set to work on the aliens' ‘time window’ project. c. Designed for use in mathematics; spec. used in drawing geometrical figures. Esp. in mathematical instrument. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematical instruments > [noun] mathematical instrument1588 rectificatory1593 pantometer1597 sector1598 holometer1696 multiplier1875 horn-centre1879 the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective] > adopted for mathematical use mathematical1588 mathematic1664 1588 T. Hariot Briefe Rep. Virginia sig. E4 Most thinges they sawe with vs, as Mathematicall instruments, sea compasses, the vertue of the loadstone in drawing yron. 1663 A. Cowley College in Wks. (1721) II. 567 A Mathematical Chamber furnish'd with all Sorts of Mathematical Instruments, being an Appendix to a Library. 1696 London Gaz. No. 3224/4 Lost.., a small Pocket-Book of Mathematical Paper. 1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iii. ii. 18 A large Table filled with Globes and Spheres, and Mathematical Instruments. 1789 J. Pilkington View Derbyshire I. viii. 405 Mathematical rulers and excisemen's gauging sticks. 1823 Ld. Byron Let. 26 Dec. (1981) XI. 83 The Mathematical instruments are thrown away—none of the Greeks know a problem from a poker. 1849 H. M. Noad Lect. Electr. (ed. 3) 284 A celebrated mathematical instrument-maker. 1919 S. Paget Sir V. Horsley 189 R. H. Clarke..also devised a stereotaxic apparatus, probably the most complex of all the mathematical instruments of physiology. 1995 Independent 21 Oct. (Weekend section) 22/2 The sad tale of the stingray, whose skin was routinely used in the 18th and 19th centuries in the manufacture of spectacle cases, mathematical instrument cases and the like. d. As understood or defined in mathematics; being what the term denotes in mathematics. See also mathematical point n. at Compounds. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [adjective] > recognition or import within mathematic1609 mathematical1641 1641 Ld. Digby Speeches High Court Parl. 14 A Concentring of all the Royall lynes in his Person, as undisputably as any Mathematicall ones in Euclide. a1656 J. Hales Golden Remains (1659) ii. 10 This Dispute for its endlessness was like the Mathematical line. 1783 B. Porteus Serm. v. 116 How two mathematical lines, indefinitely produced, can be for ever approaching each other, and yet never meet. a1832 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) II. 397 In future probability means mathematical probability, unless the contrary be specified. 1840 D. Lardner Treat. Geom. i. 11 The notion of a mathematical surface may be formed by imagining a mathematical line to move in any manner in space. 1921 F. H. Knight Risk, Uncertainty & Profit ii. 46 If risk were exclusively of the nature of a known chance or mathematical probability, there could be no reward in risk-taking. 1989 PC Mag. (U.K. ed.) May 121/1 Unlike conventional languages, they offer mathematical objects and functions as built-in primitives. 2. Designating or relating to objects apprehended not by sense perception but by thought or abstraction (abstraction n. 3); (more generally) †unreal, imaginary (obsolete). Later also, in some interpretations of Platonic philosophy: designating objects (such as those of mathematics) belonging to a category intermediate between universal ideas and perceptible objects (see B. 2).Originally Theology, in debates about the nature of Christ's bodily presence in the Eucharist: designating a body as possessing, or as consisting of, purely spatial accidents (accident n. 1a) (now historical and rare). ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [adjective] > abstract or relating to abstraction mathematical1547 abstract1557 abstracted1605 inconcretea1626 nonsensible1838 unembodied1841 abstractional1842 discrete1851 1547 J. Hooper Declar. Christe viii. H viij b Then it is no body for a trew body phisicall and matematical: as Christes body is: cannot be except it ocopi place. 1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 700/2 He..in effect denieth the verity of Christes blessed body vpon the crosse, calling it Mathematical. 1616 T. Granger Syntagma Grammaticum Ep. Ded. sig. B8 And so this all, is a certaine Monogrammus, mathematicall..or imaginarie, and vniuersall man. a1642 R. Callis Reading of Statute of Sewers (1647) iv. 191 This Statute requireth an actual habitation or resciancy, and not a Mathematical or Imaginary resciancy. 1662 J. Chandler tr. J. B. van Helmont Oriatrike 150 A Mathematicall corporality or bodiliness. 1897 M. H. Dziewicki Wyclif's De Logica (1899) III. Introd. 26 Christ's Body..is present without either position or shape. The bread is not annihilated; what remains is a purely mathematical body, but not nothing. 1909 Mind 18 565 Within the world of Ideas there is now an essential cleavage manifest, in fact there is a certain inconsistency in making these mathematical concepts Ideas at all. 1946 Philos. Rev. 55 190 The assertion of mathematical objects separate from both the ideas and sensible things and intermediate between them. 1996 W. L. Reese Dict. Philos. & Relig. (new ed.) 584/2 The shift..is from image to individual things to mathematical and other semi-abstract entities to universal forms. †3. Astrological. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > astrology > [adjective] astrological1538 mathematical?1549 mathematic1593 astrologian1621 astrologic1648 uranical1671 philomathical1709 astrologous1817 ?1549 J. Hooper Declar. 10 Commandm. vi. 90 Thowghe I..damne this damnable art Mathematicall, I do not damne souche other artes and sciences as be associatyd and annexid with this vnlawfull Astrologie. 1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie iii. viii. 143 That Egyptian and Chaldæan wisedome Mathematicall, wherewith Moses and Daniell were furnished. 1673 H. Hickman Hist. Quinq-articularis 395 He pretended a full perswasion of a Mathematical fate or destiny, yet..he was out of measure afraid of Thunders. †4. Mechanical. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > [adjective] mathematical1565 mechanical1567 organical1594 mechanic1624 machinal1680 mechanistic1884 1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare ix. 419 The Mathematical Dooue, that Architas Tarentinus made, that was hable to flie alone. 1833 Proc. Old Bailey 4 July 6th Sess. 605/2 Philip John Birch , mathematical-instrument-maker, Edward James Burchell , broker, [etc.] gave the prisoner a good character. 5. a. Resembling what is found in mathematics; rigorously exact. Of a person: precise, calculating, fastidious.In quot. 1639: (probably) of proven efficacy. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > freedom from error, correctness > exactness, accuracy, precision > [adjective] > of calculated result evena1400 justc1400 mathematical1604 exacta1616 mathematic1664 strict1791 1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies i. x. 34 We should yet confesse, that this reason were very peremptorie and Mathematicall. 1631 B. Jonson Divell is Asse i. iv, in Wks. II. 101 Raise him up by degrees, Gently, and hold him there too, you can doe it. Shew your selfe now, a Mathematicall broker. 1639 T. de Gray Compl. Horseman To Rdr. sig. C2 Such Cures..whereof I have had no tryall or experience at all..and therefore dare not avouch or cry them up for mathematicall, albeit they do appear unto me to be probably good. 1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity iv. 10 It will follow with certitude plainly Mathematical. 1693 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. vii. 17 I suppose all the Particles of Matter to be..situated in an exact and mathematical evenness. 1809 S. T. Coleridge Friend 12 Oct. 140 A Theory conducted throughout with mathematical precision. 1847 T. Medwin Life Shelley II. 203 A cold, selfish, mathematical unoriginal, like Hobbes. 1873 T. Hardy Pair of Blue Eyes II. x. 224 Setting down the cup with mathematical exactness upon the spot from which he had raised it. 1963 J. Fowles Collector (1989) (BNC) 223 I still believe in a God. But he's so remote, so cold, so mathematical. 1983 R. Barnard Little Victims (1993) (BNC) 68 He arranged the meal with mathematical precision on a plate. b. Exactly regular. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > conformity to or with a pattern, etc. > [adjective] > conforming to a standard rule rightOE justc1384 verya1425 orderly1542 ruled1551 normatic1598 formal1635 solemn1639 regular1643 mathematical1776 reglementary1800 rule-right1877 1776 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music I. 449 The voice varied a little up and down, and did not strictly keep to one mathematical line of tone. 1818 W. Hazlitt Lect. Eng. Poets i. 5 Plato banished the poets from his Commonwealth, lest their descriptions of the natural man should spoil his mathematical man. 1881 J. Hawthorne Fortune's Fool (1883) i. xiv Within are straight paths and mathematical grass-plots. 1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood 11 The bare hill-tops..skirted with methodically-planned woods of selected conifers, and girdled with mathematical stone dykes. 1951 J. Jones From Here to Eternity xxviii. 426 Then the trucks were out on the open highway, riding..past the mathematical fields of pineapple. †6. Geometrical; diagrammatic. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > geometry > [adjective] geometricalc1392 geometrialc1550 geometric1609 mathematical1614 mathematica1680 1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. ii. xiii. §7. 434 Cosmographers in their descriptions of the world..fill the same with strange beastes, birdes, and fishes, and with Mathematicall lines. 1656 A. Cowley To Dr. Scarborough in Pindaric Odes vi. (note) Archimedes..being found in his Study drawing Mathematical Lines for the making of some new Engines to preserve the Town. B. n. †1. a. A mathematician. Also: an astrologer; a learned person. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > astrology > [noun] > astrologer astronomienc1330 astrologianc1400 astrologue1487 calker1535 mathematical1545 mathematiciana1576 mathematist1579 astrologer1581 artist1584 mathematicc1604 astrologomage1635 astrologist1683 the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > knowledge of > one who has mathematician?a1475 mathematical1545 mathematic1547 algebrician1579 computist1595 algebraist1614 philomathematic1621 Archimedesa1649 algorist1656 analyst1656 fluxionist1734 calculist1829 metamathematician1935 numerical analyst1956 1545 in J. Schäfer Early Mod. Eng. Lexicogr. (1989) II. (at cited word) The Mathematicalles tyme begynneth with the Sonne sett. 1567 R. Mulcaster tr. J. Fortescue Learned Commendation Lawes Eng. f. 21^v Thei are certein uniuersall propositions, which thei that be learned in the Lawes of Englande, likewise the Mathematicals do terme Maximes. 1577 H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. I. ii. ii. sig. H.ij^v/1 The..signes in the firmament shall be strange Gods, if we being deceiued with the Mathematicals shall wholy hang on them. 1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. viii. 107 Protagoras was banished Athens for it; and the Mathematicals were vtterly condemned for it. b. In plural. Mathematics; astrology. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > astrology > [noun] estellationc1300 astrologya1393 astronomyc1400 mathematicals1563 astrologics1569 astronomicals1658 uranics1671 the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] mathematica1387 mathesisa1475 mathematics?1545 mathematicals1563 posology1817 math1847 maths1911 1563 J. Shute First Groundes Archit. sig. Aii^v By a sertaine kinred and affinitie [it] is knit vnto all the Mathematicalles which sciences and knowledges are frendes. 1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xxx. f. 375^v The rare knowledge of Mathematicalls, and other hydden and secrete Artes. 1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits viii. 103 From a good imagination, spring all the Arts and Sciences..: such are Poetrie, Eloquence, Musicke,..the Mathematicals, Astrologie [etc.]. 1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits viii. 117 They profit well in the Mathematicals, and in Astrologie, because they haue a good imagination. a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. ix. §1. 295 Mathematicals are proportioned vnto diuinitie, as the shadow to the Body. 2. Esp. in Platonic philosophy: a mathematical entity, object, body, etc. (see sense A. 2). Usually in plural. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > mathematical objects mathematical1555 1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 324^v Such vniforme partes as are in mathematicals. 1904 Athenæum 23 Apr. 521/3 Dr. Caird is..right..in rejecting the ascription to Plato of the conception of mathematicals as an intermediate grade of being between ideas and sensibles. [Caird's own words were ‘mathematical principles’.] 1911 Mind 20 252 Already in the Republic we hear of a third order of existents intermediate between these two, namely the mathematicals. 1921 Mind 30 216 Is not this enough to explain why on Aristotle's showing the Platonic εἶδος is ‘separate’ from the ‘mathematicals’, and both from sensibles? 1982 MLN 97 181 The complex and still highly controversial topic of the relationship between the Ideas and mathematicals in Plato (and his successors). Compounds mathematical geography n. the application of mathematics to geography, now esp. by means of models and statistical analysis. ΚΠ 1740 (title) Geography reformed: or, a new system of general geography according to an accurate analysis of the science,..In four parts. I. Of the nature and principles of geography;..II. Of mathematical geography; [etc.]. 1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Math. Geogr. i. 1/2 Mathematical Geography is that branch of the general science which is derived from the application of mathematical truths to the figure of the earth. 1888 Science 21 Sept. 142/2 Mathematical geography forms the first part. This is followed by meteorology, oceanology, geophysics, and biology. 1939 E. D. Laborde tr. E. de Martonne Shorter Physical Geogr. (rev. ed.) 1 To draw these representations—or maps—correctly, man is led on to the calculation of the shape of the Earth; and thus mathematical geography came to be studied by the Ionian philosophers. 2006 M. W. Jackson Harmonious Triads ii. 15 He offered lectures on geometry, physical and mathematical geography, and natural history at the University of Wittenberg. mathematical induction n. logical induction as applied to mathematical proof; chiefly spec. with reference to the principle that if a proposition P(n) is true when n takes a particular value m, and if for all integer values of n greater than or equal to m, P(n) implies P(n + 1), then P(n) is true for all integers greater than or equal to m. ΚΠ 1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 466/1 An instance of mathematical induction occurs in every equation of differences, in every recurring series, &c. 1900 Amer. Math. Monthly 7 35 Mathematical Induction..is a method of proof used where a primary operation and a secondary law have produced the same series of results to see if the supposed secondary law is valid. 1991 C. B. Boyer & U. C. Merzbach Hist. Math. (ed. 2) xvii. 355 In fact, mathematical induction, or reasoning by recurrence, sometimes is referred to as ‘Fermatian induction’, to distinguish it from scientific, or ‘Baconian,’ induction. 2015 W. Hodge Infl. of Augustus De Morgan 11 The editors of the Penny Cyclopedia..in 1838 invited two authors to write, one (De Morgan) about mathematical induction and one (Hamilton?) about logical induction. mathematical linguistics n. the branch of linguistics concerned with the application of mathematical models and procedures to the analysis of linguistic structure. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > other specific branches or schools historical linguistics1871 functional grammar1894 applied linguistics1922 functionalism1935 prelinguistics1949 metalinguistics1951 mathematical linguistics1955 systemic linguistics1958 computational linguistics1961 emic1962 microsociolinguistics1968 stratificationalism1968 creolistics1970 macrolinguistics1972 1955 Harvard Univ. Catal. 1955–6 161 Seminar in Mathematical Linguistics. 1964 E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. vii. 145 At several universities..courses in ‘mathematical linguistics’ are offered. 1972 R. R. K. Hartmann & F. C. Stork Dict. Lang. & Linguistics 137 Mathematical linguistics may be said to begin with the counting of linguistic units such as phonemes, graphemes, or vocabulary items. mathematical linguist n. a person who is an expert in or student of mathematical linguistics. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > other specific branches or schools > student or adherent of mathematical linguist1951 stratificationalist1965 computational linguist1966 Firthian1981 1951 Language 27 221 There is a growing cleavage between the mathematical linguists, or metalinguists, and the physical linguists, whom I should call just plain linguists. 1960 Jrnl. Symbolic Logic 25 34 Refinements of sentential structure that are of interest to the mathematical linguist. mathematical logic n. logic that is mathematical in its method, using symbols and following definite and explicit rules of derivation; modern or symbolic logic. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > predicate or propositional logic > [noun] > mathematical or symbolic logic mathematical logic1853 symbolic logic1856 logic1903 logistic1918 1853 F. S. Mines Presbyterian Clergyman Contents p. vii No mathematical logic. 1864 A. De Morgan in Trans. Cambr. Philos. Soc. 10 176/2 This mathematical logic..will commend itself to the educated world. 1880 J. Venn in Princeton Rev. 248 What with the logicians who hate mathematics, and the mathematicians who despise logic, a theory of so-called mathematical logic does not find many friends. 1908 B. Russell in Amer. Jrnl. Math. 30 222 (title) Mathematical logic as based on the theory of types. 1990 Sci. Amer. July 82/1 Although philosophy and mathematical logic chiefly engaged him, he also contributed to economics..and semantics. mathematical logician n. a person who is an expert in or student of mathematical logic. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > predicate or propositional logic > [noun] > mathematical or symbolic logic > adherent of mathematical logician1851 symbolic logician1903 logicista1910 logistician1932 1851 A. De Morgan in Trans. Cambr. Philos. Soc. 9 110 There is no occasion for the mathematical logician to pay the least deference to the Christian followers of Aristotle; the master himself was a mathematician. 1903 B. Russell Princ. Math. iii. 457 But now, thanks mainly to the mathematical logicians, formal logic is enriched by several forms of reasoning not reducible to the syllogism. 1982 A. J. Ayer Philos. in 20th Cent. v. 16 What most mathematical logicians would regard as the mass of acceptable results. Mathematical Markup Language n. Computing a markup language used for the encoding and display of mathematical notation, esp. on the World Wide Web (abbreviated MathML). ΚΠ 1997 Information Week (Nexis) 13 Oct. 8 a Two such standard data schemes under design are a Chemical Markup Language..and a Mathematical Markup Language for mathematical notation. 1998 InfoWorld (Nexis) 2 Mar. 22 With the Mathematical markup Language (MathML) upgraded to a proposed recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) last week, mathematical expressions will finally be able to be transported across the Web. mathematical model n. see model n. 8a. mathematical philosophy n. the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of mathematics. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > mathematical philosophy > [noun] mathematical philosophy1832 metamathematics1890 the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > philosophy of mathematical philosophy1832 1832 A. Johnson tr. W. G. Tennemann Man. Hist. Philos. 64 He [sc. Pythagoras] was led to adopt a sort of Mathematical Philosophy, which gave to his school also the name of Mathematical. 1879 W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 141 Clifford's..chapters on the ‘Philosophy of the Pure Sciences’..form as luminous an introduction to mathematical philosophy as was ever written. 1919 B. Russell (title) Introduction to mathematical philosophy. 1989 R. Penrose Emperor's New Mind (1991) iv. 116 I have briefly described the three main streams of present-day mathematical philosophy: formalism, Platonism, and intuitionism. mathematical physics n. the branch of physics in which mathematical representations are used in the study of physical systems. ΚΠ 1847 J. Herapath Math. Physics I. 1 There are..certain branches of natural philosophy the phenomena of which are capable of being estimated in numbers, and of being embodied..into mathematical laws. These..we therefore designate Mathematical Physics, or the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. 1903 Amer. Math. Monthly 10 149 He was appointed, in 1871, to the Professorship of Mathematical Physics in Yale. 1992 Accountancy Dec. 26 He left university with a first class honours degree and a PhD in mathematical physics. mathematical point n. a point having a position but no magnitude in any dimension. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > geometry > point > [noun] pointa1398 prick1532 sign1570 punctuma1592 punct1638 mathematical point1659 origin1723 fixed point1778 lattice point1857 pole1879 point of closure1956 1659 H. More Immortality of Soul ii. i. 115 By a meer point of Matter I doe not mean a meer Mathematicall point, but a perfect Parvitude, or the least reality of which Matter can consist. 1739 D. Hume Treat. Human Nature I. iv. 410 Neither ought a desire, tho' indivisible, to be consider'd as a mathematical point. 1844 M. Faraday in Philos. Mag. 24 141 In Boscovitch's theory a disappears, or is a mere mathematical point. 1990 R. Morris Edges of Sci. iv. x. 202 According to general relativity, the singularity is a mathematical point. mathematical programming n. the theory and application of mathematical methods for choosing, from a defined set of alternatives, the solution that best satisfies predetermined criteria. ΚΠ 1953 R. Dorfman in Amer. Econ. Rev. 43 797 This paper is intended to set forth the leading ideas of mathematical programming. 1974 P. R. Adby & A. M. Dempster Introd. Optimization Methods v. 120 The techniques for such problems constitute the bulk of the computational aspects of constrained optimization, or mathematical programming. 1991 A. Noble in C. Bondi New Applic. Math. x. 227 The basic data (d_i, s_j and c_y) are set out in Table 10.4 (usually called a tableau in mathematical programming jargon). Derivatives matheˈmaticalness n. rare = mathematicality n. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematics > [noun] > quality of mathematicalness1698 ethnomathematics1981 1698 R. Ferguson View of Ecclesiastick in Socks & Buskins 99 The Art and Mathematicalness of Thinking. 1991 New Scientist 16 Feb. 56/4 Even here, where the ‘mathematicalness’ of the performance is forced on you, the dance is more absorbing. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < adj.n.?a1475
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