numerical

Etymology

It is formed from Latin numerus (“a number”) and the suffix -ical,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} perhaps under the influence of French numérique.^[4][3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive it instead from Medieval Latin numericus, from numerus, with the suffix -al.^[7][8] The Latin word is the source of number.^[9][3] Compare numeric.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Identical, the very same, in phrases such as the same numerical: 1621 in Barnhart, and 1624 in the OED, both in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were about identity: "the same numerical body" meant the very same, not merely a similar one (1624–1731), and in philosophy numerical identity or difference is that of a thing as an individual, apart from any likeness (from 1643, in Browne).^[2] Johnson (1755) gave both this sense, "the same not only in kind or species, but number", and the sense "denoting number; pertaining to numbers".^[10] The sense relating to numbers appears in 1628, in Thomas Spencer's Art of Logick,^[2][4][5] and was applied to symbols that denote numbers from 1647,^[2] to strength in numbers from 1812,^[2] and in mathematics to expressions with numbers rather than letters from 1840.^[2] In American use from 1872 it describes things designated by a number instead of a name.^[2] A sense "metrical, rhythmical" is recorded once, in 1749.^[2]

Timeline

• 1621 – identical, the very same (1624 in the OED).^[4][2]
• 1628 – of or relating to numbers.^[2][4][5]
• 1643 – philosophy, of numerical identity.^[2]
• 1647 – of a symbol, denoting a number.^[2]
• 1760 – noun, a numeral.^[2]
• 1812 – having respect to numbers, as of strength.^[2]
• 1840 – mathematics, using numbers rather than letters.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or consisting of numbers: The rebels' numerical advantage did not last.^[11][5][2]
2. Expressed in numbers or figures rather than letters or words: a numerical code.^[11][5]
3. Denoting a number: numerical signs.^[5][2]
4. (mathematics) Using numbers rather than letters for constants and coefficients.^[11][2]
5. (obsolete, 1624–1731) The very same; identical.^[2][10]

Word family

• numerically
• numericalness
• numerical analysis
• numerical control
• numerical taxonomy

Related words

• numeric
• number
• numeral
• numerous
• numerate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins