▪ I. math1 Obs. exc. dial. (see E.D.D.).
(mɑːθ, -æ-)
Forms: 1 mǽþ, 6–7 mathe, 6– math.
[OE. mǽþ (once in Bosw.-T., gender not shown), = MHG. mât, mâd- neut. and fem. (mod.G. mahd fem.) f. OTeut. root mæ̂- to mow.
The normal mod.E. form would have been meath (miːθ); the existing form is due to the shortening of the vowel through loss of stress in the combinations aftermath, lattermath, day-math. Cf. mowth.]
A mowing; the amount of a crop mowed. (See aftermath, day's-math, lattermath.)
| 963 Lease in Birch Cartul. Sax. III. 343 Þæt he mid eallum cræfte twuᵹa on ᵹeare [? insert wyrce] æne to mæþe & oðre siðe to riþe. [1523: see aftermath. 1530: see lattermath.] 1585 Higins Nomenclator 124 Fœnum cordum,..late math, or lateward hay. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 573 When this hearbe Medica or Claver grasse beginneth once to flour, cut it downe... Thus you may have sixe mathes in one yeare. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts, Amos vii. 557 The first mowing thereof for the King's use (which is wont to be sooner then the common mathe). a 1656 Ussher Ann. iv. (1658) 37 At the end of the spring, at the second math of grasse. 1804 Colebrooke Husb. Bengal (1806) 71 Revenue drawn from fruit-trees, pastures, and math, and rent of fisheries. 1917 Mother St. Jerome Garden of Life 18 You feel as you lie in the math The watching unseen of his eyes. 1968 R. E. Zupko Dict. Eng. Weights & Measures 103 Math,..in Herefordshire equal to approximately 1 acre..or to the amount of land that a man could mow in a day. |
▪ II. ‖ math2 Indian.
(mʌth)
Also matha, muth, mutt.
[Hindī maṭh, repr. Skr. maṭha, hut, cottage.]
A Hindu convent of celibate mendicants.
| 1828 H. H. Wilson in Asiatick Researches XVI. 103 The disciples, who are domesticated in the several Maths, profess also perpetual celibacy. 1834 Baboo II. i. 3 He was to drive to an old Muth near Garden Reach. a 1851 M. M. Sherwood Hist. Little Henry & his Bearer (1866) 84 This sahib..had himself built a mutt. 1862 Beveridge Hist. India II. iv. ii. 74 They live like other mendicants collected in maths. 1877 M. Williams Hinduism 224 Yatis, monks or ascetics,..often congregate in Maṭhas or ‘monasteries’. 1883 Madras Mail 5 Dec. 26/1 Mutts and temples are closed to him. 1885 Sir W. Hunter Imp. Gaz. India XIII. 323 There are two maths or religious establishments in the village. 1913 ‘A. Avalon’ tr. Tantra of Great Liberation p. xvii, Kedarnath... A matha and temple dedicated to Shrī Sādāshiva. 1956 R. Redfield Peasant Society & Culture iii. 81 Some sweet-voiced, gifted expounder sitting in a temple, mutt, public hall or house-front. |
▪ III. math3 U.S. colloq.
(mæθ)
= maths.
Math. is used as an abbreviation in written English in the U.K. but not in speech, the normal form being Maths.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1895 W. C. Gore in Inlander Nov. 64 Math. n. Mathematics. 1899 J. London Let. 24 Oct. (1966) 62 She's well up in the higher math. 1916 [see my guess is s.v. guess n. (1)]. 1938 I. Goldberg Wonder of Words x. 200 He [sc. a student] says math and ec. 1961 C. Winston Hours Together (1962) vii. 139 There was Morton Kersh, with the math book propped against the milk bottle on the kitchen table. 1971 Black World June 80/2 T. J. failed Math and English. 1973 Jrnl. Genetic Psychol. CXXIII. 163 The follow-up results with the math-science boys. 1974 State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 8 Mar. 19-B/5 Parents who have children in a Title I reading, math or kindergarten program are also invited to attend. |
▸ to do the math colloq.: to come to a conclusion based on the information given, usually with the implication that this conclusion is obvious. Freq. in imper., esp. in you do the math.
| 1947 N.Y. Times 9 Sept. 10 (advt.) You do the math..we matched them, glen plaids to gabardines. 1968 R. Giannone Music in Willa Cather's Fiction p. viii, Do the math: this old woman, almost spent by her hardscrabble years in Nebraska, must have done her training in the 1860s. 1995 L. Garrett Coming Plague iii. 63 But McCormick had done the math, and the knew that the situation could quickly reach West African proportions. 2005 M. Southgate Third Girl from Left 202 Do you think anyone that short, wearing those glasses, with those skinny, skinny legs, ever—I mean ever—had a date at Morehouse? You do the math. |