algebra的词源

英文词源

algebra

algebra: [16] Algebra symbolizes the debt of Western culture to Arab mathematics, but ironically when it first entered the English language it was used as a term for the setting of broken bones, and even sometimes for the fractures themselves (‘The helpes of Algebra and of dislocations’, Robert Copland, Formulary of Guydo in surgery 1541). This reflects the original literal meaning of the Arabic term al jebr, ‘the reuniting of broken parts’, from the verb jabara ‘reunite’.

The anatomical connotations of this were adopted when the word was borrowed, as algebra, into Spanish, Italian, and medieval Latin, from one or other of which English acquired it. In Arabic, however, it had long been applied to the solving of algebraic equations (the full Arabic expression was ’ilm aljebr wa’lmuqābalah ‘the science of reunion and equation’, and the mathematician al- Khwarizmi used aljebr as the title of his treatise on algebra – see ALGORITHM), and by the end of the 16th century this was firmly established as the central meaning of algebra in English.

algebra (n.)

1550s, from Medieval Latin algebra, from Arabic al jabr ("in vulgar pronunciation, al-jebr" [Klein]) "reunion of broken parts," as in computation, used 9c. by Baghdad mathematician Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi as the title of his famous treatise on equations ("Kitab al-Jabr w'al-Muqabala" "Rules of Reintegration and Reduction"), which also introduced Arabic numerals to the West. The accent shifted 17c. from second syllable to first. The word was used in English 15c.-16c. to mean "bone-setting," probably from Arab medical men in Spain.

中文词源

algebra（代数学）：波斯数学家花刺子模的代数学专著

英语单词algebra源于阿拉伯语al jebr，原意是“连接断开的部分”、“连接断骨”，al是定冠词，相当于英语中的the。公元820年，波斯数学家花刺子模发表了一份代数学领域的专著，阐述了解一次和二次方程的基本方法，明确提出了代数学中的一些基本概念，把代数学发展成为一门与几何学相提并论的独立学科。书名中使用了al jebr一词，其含义是“重新整合”，指把负项移到方程另一端变成正项。al jebr一词进入拉丁语后，变成了algebra，后来又进入了英语。在15、16世纪期间该词还有“接骨”的意思，后来才逐渐专指代数学。

algebra：['ældʒɪbrə] n.代数学

algebraic：[,ældʒɪ'breɪɪk] adj.代数学的

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：algebra 词源，algebra 含义。

algebra：代数

来自阿拉伯语al jabr. al, 定冠词。-gebra同 jabr, 接骨，喻指计算，阿拉伯数学家Khwarizmi的数学论文标题。

algebra：代数

Algebra一词是古代阿拉伯人从他们的医学术语al jebr（“断肢再接”或“正骨”）中得到的启示，从而为数学部分支——代数，创造了一个生动的短语ilm al-jebr wa'l-muqabalah，意思是“利用方程式进行简化运算”，意大利人将这个短语来了个掐头去尾，把中间的词变化为algebra，不过，这个词直到17世纪还保留着“正骨”、“接肢”的原始词义呢。