abstract nonsense

English

Etymology

Coined by Norman Steenrod, popularized by Serge Lang.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

abstract nonsense (uncountable)

1. (mathematics, humorous) Details which are straightforward but so tedious that an author or lecturer would rather skip them (especially those of a category theoretical nature).
2. (mathematics, humorous) Details which involve diagram chasing.
   • 2016, Emily Riehl, Category Theory in Context (Aurora: Dover modern math originals)‎^[1], New York: Dover, →ISBN, →OCLC, page x:

     ³Lang’s Algebra [Lan02, p. 759] supports the general consensus that this was not intended as an epithet:
     In the forties and fifties (mostly in the works of Cartan, Eilenberg, MacLane, and Steenrod, see [CE56]), it was realized that there was a systematic way of developing certain relations of linear algebra, depending only on fairly general constructions which were mostly arrow-theoretic, and were affectionately called abstract nonsense by Steenrod.

3. (mathematics, humorous) Category theory in general.

Coordinate terms

• (skipped details): handwave

Translations

straightforward and tedious details

category theory

See also

• diagram chasing

Further reading

• abstract nonsense on Wikipedia.Wikipedia