Re:Please don't call them 'Legos'
by groovy2shoes on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @09:14AM
(#7143890)
"mathematic (n.) - late 14c. as singular noun, replaced by early 17c. by mathematics, from Latin mathematica (plural), from Greek mathematike tekhne "mathematical science," feminine singular of mathematikos (adj.) ..."
Re:Please don't call them 'Legos'
by siddboots on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @09:18AM
(#7143911)
It isn't "short for" anything. This is just a normal suffix for fields of study: Physics, mechanics, politics, statistics, optics, ethics, linguistics, and so on.
Etymologically it is a plural suffix, but in modern English it is singular.
Re:Please don't call them 'Legos'
by tolmasky on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @09:09AM
(#7143856)
You're not contracting a plural. Mathematics is singular. "Mathematics IS a field of study", not "Mathematics are fields of studies". There aren't "3 mathematics".
Re:Please don't call them 'Legos'
by nailer on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @11:20AM
(#7144764)
Etymologically mathematics is a plural, as another poster notes. There are many smaller topics involved in mathematics: geometry, trig, calculus, etc. Much in the same way as mechanics, optics, politics, acoustics, etc (as a different poster mentions).
Re:Please don't call them 'Legos'
by icambron on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @08:34AM
(#7143665)
Trying to get people not to use the obvious plural is silly, but the insistance on all caps bothers me even more. It's right up there with Yahoo's exclamation mark. The convention is that everyone will call you, usually, by the name you choose, but demanding that other people use your preferred typographical novelty is lame.
Re:Please don't call them 'Legos'
by cstavish on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @08:25AM
(#7143633)
As someone who spent a ludicrous amount of time during my childhood playing with Legos and always referring to them as such to friends and family, I really don't appreciate this "request". I'm quick to correct my ways when I realize that I've been mispronouncing or misusing a word, but when we're talking about a children's toy brand (however cool it may be), let's just all take it easy.
Re:Please don't call them 'Legos'
by drcongo on Wednesday January 29, 2014 @08:41AM
(#7143713)
But a single brick isn't called a lego, it's called a LEGO brick (or part). You have never played with one LEGO brick, you have played with LEGO bricks.
Would you build a house out of house bricks or out of houses?
- Math is short for mathematics, not for mathematic, which isn't a word (try looking up 'mathematic' sometime).
- Maths is also short for mathematics.
http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=mathematic
Was mathematics once referred to as "the mathematical arts" or something?
(A similar way to appear very uncool is to walk into a record shop and proclaim, "look at all these vinyls!")
Etymologically it is a plural suffix, but in modern English it is singular.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-ics
A history of math vs maths: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZCECvoaTA
Would you build a house out of house bricks or out of houses?