Etymologically
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calculus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkaɫ.kʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkal.ku.lus][1]

Forms

calculus m (genitive calculī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin calx (“lime, limestone; a stone”) + -ulus, a diminutive.[2][3] De Vaan takes calx “lime” as a loan from Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix, “small stone, gravel”), or from another Mediterranean language that lent it to both.[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero first,[5] who tells how Demosthenes practised speaking with pebbles in his mouth.[2][6] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was a small stone or pebble, and a stone in the bladder or kidney.[2] Pebbles were used on a counting board, so it came to mean a calculation, reckoning or account; they were also the pieces in board games and the white or black stones cast as votes to acquit or condemn.[2] Vitruvius uses it of lumps in lime.[2]

In medieval Latin it was arithmetic, a decision or sentence, and one's fortune or lot.[7] English calculate came from its verb calculāre, and English calculus as a mathematical method dates from the 1660s.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of pebbles and of stones in the bladder.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the black pebble of condemnation.[2][5]
  • Middle Ages – It is used of arithmetic.[7]
  • 1660s – English calculus is recorded in mathematics.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small stone, pebble.[2]
  2. (medicine) A stone in the bladder or kidney.[2]
  3. A counter for reckoning; a calculation, account.[2]
  4. A piece in a board game.[2]
  5. A pebble used as a vote.[2]
  6. (Medieval Latin) arithmetic; a sentence; one's lot.[7]

Word family

  • calculārius
  • calculēnsis
  • calculō
  • calculōsus

Usage notes

Isidore describes the calculus as a small, round, very hard stone mixed with earth.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).