Origins of Mathematical Words: A Comprehensive Dictionary of Latin, Greek, and Arabic Roots

A

1 A a-, an-, in-, im-, un- Each of these is a prefix that negates the word to which it is appended. However, these prefixes are not to be used interchangeably; alpha privativum (¢- or ¢n-), that is, a- or an- (before a vowel), is placed before Greek words, in- (or im- before a labial consonant, that is, before b or p) before Latin words, and un- before Germanic words. When this rule is violated, as, for example, in the case of the internet lingo unsubscribe, the resulting word is low, although in cases like unequal, the construction must be accepted due to immemorial custom. Verbs of Latin origin are made negative by appending the prefix dis-, for example, disassociate, discredit. The Latin prefix in- or im- serves double duty as the preposition in, which means in or into, so special care is necessary when compounding words with it. The Latin adverb non means not. It may be considered naturalized English and should be used to negate words for which the addition of a-, an-, in-, im-, or un- is unprecedented. Thus, we say non-compact, not incompact. The choice of the wrong prefix will lead to confusion. One morning (November 3, 2011) viewers heard the word amoral used incorrectly on an episode of Judge Judy, as if it meant immoral. The culprit added a Greek suffix to a Latin adjective. People who know neither Greek nor Latin know the word moral, and some of them even know that the prefix a- negates the sense of the following adjective to which it is attached. The result is the word amoral intended to mean immoral. However, if amoral is to mean anything, it must mean pertaining to love, from the Latin amor, love, and this is the only meaning it has for people who know something. Even in cases where there is no confusion as to the intent of the author, the choice of the wrong prefix will at least lead to awkwardness. For example, 2 the cover of the June/July 2012 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society announces an article within entitled “Incomputability after Alan Turing,” but there is no such word as incomputability, though it is formed correctly after classical models. The word does not exist except as an error because it has never been used by polished authors. The correct word is non-computability. This illustrates the precariousness of forming new words according to rule from foreign languages without reference to the usage of the first class of writers. In this regard, not entirely irrelevant is the comment of Thomas Paine: The best Greek linguist that now exists does not understand Greek so well as a Grecian plowman did, or a Grecian milkmaid; and the same for the Latin, compared with a plowman or a milkmaid of the Romans.… (Thomas Paine, Age of Reason, The World’s Popular Classics, Books, Inc. Publishers, New York and Boston, no date, p. 48) The fact that a word appears in the Oxford English Dictionary does not imply that it is a good word; you will find incommutative in that lexicon, but though a cautious fellow may call it rare, a frank one will call it wrong. The sanction of existence can only be imparted to a word through its use by a polished author, like, for example, Lord Chesterfield, in whose Letters to His Son we may find the following instructive passage: LETTER CXXXII London, September the 27th, O. S. 1748. DEAR BOY, I have received your Latin Lecture upon War, which, though it is not exactly the same Latin that Cesar, Cicero, Horace, Virgil, and Ovid spoke, is, however, as good Latin as the erudite Germans speak or write. I have always observed, that the most learned people, that is those who have read the most Latin, write the worst; and that distinguishes the Latin of a Gentleman scholar, from that of a Pedant. A Gentleman has, probably, read no other Latin but that of the Augustine age; and therefore can write no other: whereas the Pedant has read much more bad 3 Latin than good; and consequently writes so too. He looks upon the best classical books, as books for school-boys, and consequently below him; but pores over fragments of obscure authors, treasures up the obsolete words which he meets with there, and uses them, upon all occasions, to show his reading, at...