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> Algorithm is just someone's name. It seems no more erroneous to include the al- part of his name than it is to include the "van der" in the "van der Waals for

> Algorithm is just someone's name. It seems no more erroneous to include the al- part of his name than it is to include the "van der" in the "van der Waals force" I thought the part of his name that led to the word “algorithm” was “al-Khwārizmī” which just means “the person from Khwarazm.” Is that not right?

thaumasiotes 5y ago
That's right. It's pretty much exactly analogous to "da Vinci". The concept of the algorithm is named for the person, al-Khwarizmi, and not for the place, Khwarazm. Why would you remove the al-?
- tshaddox 5y ago
  > The concept of the algorithm is named for the person, al-Khwarizmi, and not for the place, Khwarazm. Why would you remove the al-? Well, the word does not refer directly to that person, so the fact that its etymological origin happens to be the nisba suffix of that person's name doesn't mean it's not a mistake to include the article. Of course, we can presume that most of the people involved in the gradual coining of the English word "algorithm" (via the Latin translation of his Arabic book, followed by some mistaken association with the Greek arithmos) never even considered the etymology at any step along the way.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > the word does not refer directly to that person, so the fact that its etymological origin happens to be the nisba suffix of that person's name doesn't mean it's not a mistake to include the article. I can't follow you. Go back to the van der Waals force. Just like Arabic al-, Dutch van and der are grammatical particles; Johannes van der Waals is "John the Walloon". The capitalization is exactly what this would lead you to expect. And of course the van der Waals force is no more a direct reference to Johannes van der Waals than the algorithm is to Muhammad al-Khwarizmi or the Eiffel Tower is to Gustave Eiffel. And also no less. They're all things that are named after individual people but are not the people themselves. Why aren't you arguing that the name of the van der Waals force was just a big mistake? When you name something after someone, you use the name of the person being honored. You don't cut their name into random hunks and use those.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

That's right. It's pretty much exactly analogous to "da Vinci". The concept of the algorithm is named for the person, al-Khwarizmi, and not for the place, Khwarazm. Why would you remove the al-?

tshaddox 5y ago
> The concept of the algorithm is named for the person, al-Khwarizmi, and not for the place, Khwarazm. Why would you remove the al-? Well, the word does not refer directly to that person, so the fact that its etymological origin happens to be the nisba suffix of that person's name doesn't mean it's not a mistake to include the article. Of course, we can presume that most of the people involved in the gradual coining of the English word "algorithm" (via the Latin translation of his Arabic book, followed by some mistaken association with the Greek arithmos) never even considered the etymology at any step along the way.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > the word does not refer directly to that person, so the fact that its etymological origin happens to be the nisba suffix of that person's name doesn't mean it's not a mistake to include the article. I can't follow you. Go back to the van der Waals force. Just like Arabic al-, Dutch van and der are grammatical particles; Johannes van der Waals is "John the Walloon". The capitalization is exactly what this would lead you to expect. And of course the van der Waals force is no more a direct reference to Johannes van der Waals than the algorithm is to Muhammad al-Khwarizmi or the Eiffel Tower is to Gustave Eiffel. And also no less. They're all things that are named after individual people but are not the people themselves. Why aren't you arguing that the name of the van der Waals force was just a big mistake? When you name something after someone, you use the name of the person being honored. You don't cut their name into random hunks and use those.