Number & MeasureGreek → English
Abacus
/ˈæbəkəs/noun
A frame of beads on rods used for arithmetic, and before that any board used for reckoning.
The Greek roots
ἄβαξ
ábax
board, slab, counting table
Literally: “counting board”
Follow a root:ἄβαξ1 word
The story of the word
ἄβαξ meant a flat board or slab, and the reckoning version was strewn with sand you drew figures in and wiped clean. Many dictionaries trace the Greek to a Semitic word for dust, though the link is disputed and some scholars reject it. The bead frame everyone pictures is Chinese and Japanese; Greek and Roman clerks pushed loose counters along ruled lines, and a trained soroban operator can still beat a person with a calculator at columns of addition.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- late 14th century
In a sentence
The shopkeeper finished on the abacus before the till had woken up.
Learning the abacus gave him a habit of seeing numbers as positions.