That's a caricature. We sometimes use words for summation, e.g. Python's sum and fsum functions. I do wonder though if people had to write like that before the development of modern mathematical syntax. Even the '=' symbol is relatively young. Wikipedia tells me it was invented in 1557.

SQL is another 'wordy' language. There are many, many things wrong with the SQL language, but I wouldn't say its wordiness is one of them.