algebra English · revision 138
5 Oct 2026, 22:03 by bogdan “Add pronunciation, sense history, timeline, meanings, word family, related words” current version
Changes in this edit
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+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA: /ˈæl.dʒɪ.bɹə/ ''(UK)''; /ˈæl.d͡ʒɪ.bɹə/, /ˈæl.d͡ʒə.bɹə/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)
+
==Etymology==
− Recorded in English from the mid-16th century,^(MW Collegiate)^(Etymonline) [[bor|la-med|algebra]],^(MW Collegiate)^(Wiktionary) or via [[it|algebra]],^(OED 1989) [[der|ar|الْجَبْر|tr=al-jabr|t=the reunion of broken parts]],^(OED 1989)^(Wiktionary) from ''jabara'' “to reunite, restore”.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)
+ Recorded in English from the mid-16th century,^(MW Collegiate)^(Etymonline) [[bor|la-med|algebra]],^(MW Collegiate)^(Wiktionary) or via [[it|algebra]],^(OED 1989) [[der|ar|الْجَبْر|tr=al-jabr|t=the reunion of broken parts]],^(OED 1989)^(Wiktionary) from ''jabara'' “to reunite, restore”.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) The term comes from the title of al-Khwarizmi's 9th-century treatise on equations, ''al-Kitāb al-muḵtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala''.^(Etymonline)^(Wiktionary)
− The term comes from the title of al-Khwarizmi's 9th-century treatise on equations, ''al-Kitāb al-muḵtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala''.^(Etymonline)^(Wiktionary) The same word was used in Middle English and Medieval Latin for “bone-setting”, the surgical treatment of fractures.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Bone-setting, the surgical treatment of fractures (1541),^(OED 1989) a sense probably picked up from Arab physicians in Spain.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ The mathematical sense is recorded from 1551.^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989) Arabic ''al-jabr'', “reunion of broken parts”, named one of the two preliminary steps in solving equations,^(Etymonline) and al-Khwarizmi's book, translated into Latin in the 12th century, also introduced Arabic numerals to the West.^(Etymonline) In the 16th century John Dee called the work ''algiebar'' and ''almachabel'';^(Etymonline) in the 17th century the stress moved from the second syllable to the first.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 1541 – “bone-setting”.^(OED 1989)
+ * 1551 – the branch of mathematics.^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989)
+ * 17th century – the stress shifts to the first syllable.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Modern meaning==
+ ===Noun===
+ # The branch of mathematics in which letters and other symbols stand for numbers in general statements of relations.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # Any of various abstract systems of elements and operations studied in modern mathematics.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # ''(obsolete)'' Bone-setting.^(OED 1989)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[algebraist]]
+ * [[prealgebra]]
+ * [[Boolean algebra]]
+ * [[abstract algebra]]
+ * [[division algebra]]
+ * [[linear algebra]]
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[algebraic]]
+ * [[algorithm]]
==References==