Arithmetic

The story of the word

Greek ἀριθμητικὴ τέχνη is the art of number, and it was understood as the theory of numbers themselves, while the grubbier business of reckoning with them for trade was λογιστική. Middle English scribes wrote arsmetrike, having decided the word must be Latin ars metrica, the measuring art, and the Greek spelling was only restored by Renaissance scholars. Algorithm, which sounds like a cousin, is not one: it comes from the name of the ninth-century mathematician al-Khwarizmi and was pulled towards this spelling by association.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English

First recorded

13th century