mathematic
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- mathematick (obsolete)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English mathematik, from Old French mathematique or directly from Latin mathēmaticus, from Ancient Greek μᾰθημᾰτῐκός (mathēmatikós), from μάθημα (máthēma, “learning; mathematics”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”, adjective suffix).
Adjective
[edit]mathematic (comparative more mathematic, superlative most mathematic)
- (archaic) mathematical
- c. 1798, Joseph Fawcett, On Viſiting the Gardens at Verſailles:
- Round rolls the stroke with mathematic care,
All centre-bound, exactly circular:
No sportive way it takes, at large and free,
No gambol plays of freakful liberty […]
- 1874 June 1, Francis Barham, “On Swedenborg’s Theology. An Unpublished Fragment.”, in The Intellectual Repository and New Jerusalem Magazine (Enlarged Series; XXI), volume XLIX (Entire Work), number 246, London: Published by the General Conference of the New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation: And sold by James Speirs, 36 Bloomsbury Street, →OCLC, page 263:
- This is the sort of struggle which proves a man's metal, and declares it sterling or counterfeit. No spuriosity, no charlatanry can stand this fiery alembic of hard-wrought and exquisite calculation, in which one mathematic point or unit misplaced destroys the whole chain of reasoning, and proves the candidate a blunderer.