abacus

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“
So slow and so painful is the assimilation of new ideas Bernelinus[480] states that the abacus is a well-polished board (or table), which is covered with blue sand and used by geometers in drawing geometrical figures.

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Definitions (16)

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  1. noun A manual computing device consisting of a frame holding parallel rods strung with movable counters.
  2. noun Architecture A slab on the top of the capital of a column.
  3. Word History
    The adjective dusty, with its connotations of disuse and age, might seem an appropriate word to describe the abacus, since this counting device was used for solving arithmetical problems in the days before calculators and computers. Originally the abacus was, in fact, dusty. The source of our word abacus, the Greek word abax, probably comes from Hebrew 'ābāq, "dust,” although the details of transmission are obscure. In postbiblical usage 'ābāq meant "sand used as a writing surface.” The Greek word abax has as one of its senses "a board sprinkled with sand or dust for drawing geometric diagrams.” This board is a relative of the abacus with movable counters strung on rods that is familiar to us. The first use of the word abacus, recorded in Middle English in a work written before 1387, refers to a sand-board abacus used by the Arabs. The difference in form between the Middle English word abacus and its Greek source abax is explained by the fact that Middle English borrowed Latin abacus, which came from the Greek genitive form (abakos) of abax.

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Examples (50)

  • And abacus could be the accounting of what she's been embezzling. —  Muller, Marcia - [McCone 08] Eye of the Storm UC FR.htm
  • The owner used an abacus, and Angela used to laugh about it and say the abacus was a device the Chinese used to cheat the Anglo customer. —  Muller, Marcia - [McCone 08] Eye of the Storm UC FR.htm
  • Amid the clutter piled atop the table along the far wall stood an abacus, a crystal ball, a shrunken head. —  F ;SF; - vol 092 issue 02 - February 1997
  • The district's elementary schools have begun using the abacus, a calculating tool used by ancient societies, to teach students about counting, place value, arithmetic and even fractions.
  • With just a few strokes on the abacus, the Year Six pupil of SK Pendidikan Khas, Jalan Batu, came up with the answer of 782 within seconds.
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Latin, from Greek abax, abak-, counting board, perhaps from Hebrew 'ābāq, dust; see אbq in Semitic roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin, a sideboard, counting-table, etc., from Latin abax, from Greek ἄβαξ, a reckoning-board, sideboard, etc.; said to be from Phoenician abak, sand strewn on a surface for writing, because the ancients used tables covered with sand on which to make figures and diagrams.
 

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/ˈæbəkəs/
by American Heritage
by peggy tharpe

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