▪ I. arithmetic, n.1
(əˈrɪθmɪtɪk)
Forms: 3 arsmetike, 4 -metique, 4–5 -metyk, ars metrik(e, 4–6 arsmetrik(e, 5 -metryk(e, -metrique, -matryk, arce metrik, 6 arsmetrycke, arsemetricke; 5 arismetrik; 6 arithmetryk, -metricke, -metike, -metique, 6–7 arithmatick(e, -matique, -meticke, 6–8 -metick, 7 -metic.
[orig. a. OF. arismetique, ad. Pr. and late L. arismetica, for L. arithmētica, a. Gr. ἡ ἀριθµητική (sc. τέχνη) the art of counting, f. ἀριθµέ-ειν to number, count, reckon, f. ἀριθµός number. Erroneously referred in ME. to L. ars metrica ‘art of measure,’ and made into arsmetrike, the common form from 14th to 16th c., which was gradually corrected, through arismetrik in Caxton, arithmetricke in Sir T. More, to arithmetyke in Recorde 1543. In 16th c. it was also sometimes conformed in ending to mathematick, and to geometry: see arsmetry.]
1. The science of numbers; the art of computation by figures.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 792 Egipte clerkes..hem lerede, witterlike, Astronomiȝe and arsmetike. c 1305 St. Edmund E.E.P. (1862) 77 Arsmetrike is a lore: þat of figours al is. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1040 That geometry or arsmetrike can [v.r. Ars Metrik(e, arsmetrik, arce metrik]. c 1400 Cov. Myst. 189 Also of augrym and of asmatryk. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 103 Arismetrik & astrologie. 1494 Fabyan vii. 604 The .vii. artes or scyences lyberall..grammer, logyke, rethoryke, musyke, arsmetryke, gemetry, and astronomye. 1528 More Heresyes i. Wks. 111/1 Arithmetricke meete for marchauntes. 1530 Rastell Purgat. ii. xix, Methematycall scyens as geometrye, arithmetryk. 1543 Recorde Gr. Arts 6 Bothe names are corruptly writen: Arsmetrike for Arithmetyke, as the Grekes call it, and Awgrym for Algorisme, as Arabyans sounde it. 1589 Pasquil's Ret. B iij, [It] multiplies..by Arithmaticke, it makes a thousand of one. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 52 These roguish Arsmetrique gibbets or flesh-hookes, and cyphers or round oos. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. ii. 16 Arithmetic..is supposed to have been first invented by the Phenicians. 1750 Harris Hermes (1841) 202 Arithmetic is excellent for the gauging of liquors. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. vi. (1872) 200 Is Arithmetic,—a thing more fixed by the Eternal, than the laws of justice. |
2. Arithmetical knowledge, computation, reckoning.
| 1607 Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 245 But now 'tis oddes beyond Arithmetick. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 549 ¶1 Such innumerable articles, that I want arithmetic to cast them up. 1807 Wordsw. Sonn. Liberty i. xxiv, What if our numbers barely could defy The arithmetic of babes. |
3. A treatise on computation.
| 1623 J. Johnson (title) Arithmetick. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 92, §5, I would advise all young wives to make themselves Mistresses of Wingate's arithmetick. |
▪ II. arithˈmetic, a. and n.2
7 arithmetick.
[a. F. arithmétique, or ad. L. arithmēticus: see next.]
A. adj. a. = arithmetical.
arithmetic mean, arithmetic progression: = arithmetical mean, etc., s.v. arithmetical a. (and n.). arithmetic shift: a shift (shift n. 14 g) which makes provision for retaining a sign bit and allows for the possible loss of digits by truncation or overflow.
| 1673 Morland (title) Description and Use of two Arithmetic Instruments. 1767 Horsley in Phil. Trans. LVII. 399 The semi-circle being a mean arithmetic between AC and ABC. 1866 W. Odling Lect. Animal Chem. 151 The proportional number of bromine is intermediate between those of chlorine and iodine, and..approximates very closely to the true arithmetic mean. 1886 G. Chrystal Algebra i. xx. 466 An Arithmetic Series, or an Arithmetic Progression, as it is often called, is a series in which each term exceeds the preceding by a fixed quantity, called the common difference. 1901 Beman & Smith tr. K. Fink's Brief Hist. Mathematics 96 Among the Italians of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries..the course of an arithmetic operation was expressed entirely in words. 1951 Proc. IRE Mar. 272/1 Arithmetic element, that part of a computer which performs arithmetic operations. 1954 T. W. Chaundy et al. Printing of Mathematics 64 In changing practice some mathematical terms have shortened. Thus we say ‘convergence’ rather than ‘convergency’; ‘algebraic’, ‘geometric’ generally replace ‘algebraical’,‘geometrical’, and even ‘arithmétic’ (so accented), can be an adjective as in ‘arithmetic mean’. 1960 Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery III. 301/2 Delimiters.. :: = {vb}{vb}{vb}. 1963 KDF9 Programming Man. (Eng. Electric Leo Computers Ltd.) 108 Arithmetic shifts are designed to deal with numbers only. 1965 C. M. Springer et al. Advanced Methods & Models iii. 69 Any sequence of n numbers in which each term differs from the preceding term by a constant amount is called an arithmetic progression. 1972 M. Kline Math. Thought iii. 32 If p and q are two numbers..the harmonic mean H..is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of 1/p and 1/q. 1980 C. S. French Computer Sci. xxiv. 174 Arithmetic shifts ie moving bits in registers either left or right in order to multiply or divide. 1984 Which Micro? Dec. 31/2 Full range of arithmetic and relational operators. |
b. arithmetic (and logic or logical) unit: a unit in a computer which carries out arithmetical and logical operations; abbrev. ALU (A III. 1).
| 1946 J. P. Eckert in Theory & Techniques Design Electronic Digital Computers (Univ. Penn.) (1947) I. x. 16 When successively adding several numbers, it is possible to hold the sum in the arithmetic unit. 1962 Automatic Data Processing Gloss. (U.S. Bureau of Budget) 2/2 ALU, Arithmetic and Logical Unit. 1969 P. B. Jordain Condensed Computer Encycl. 32 The arithmetic unit performs the bulk of the internal processing commands of a computer. 1977 Sci. Amer. Sept. 88/2 The arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), as its name implies, contains devices such as adders for arithmetic and logic operations on data received over the bus. 1984 I. R. Whitworth 16-bit Microprocessors i. 2 An 8-bit arithmetic-and-logic unit (ALU) operates upon arguments held in programmer-accessible registers or accumulators. |
† B. n. [Cf. It. arithmetico.] An arithmetician. Obs.
| 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 178 The cabalistical rabbins, the Greek arithmeticks. |