5 ms·
Only slightly related to the article actually but when did the pluralized term maths become a thing. I feel like it had to be recent but I've been noticing it e
by zaphar 12y ago
Only slightly related to the article actually but when did the pluralized term maths become a thing. I feel like it had to be recent but I've been noticing it everywhere lately.
- pessimizer 12y agoCommonwealth people generally say maths. http://www.word-detective.com/2011/05/math-vs-maths/ http://www.word-detective.com/2011/05/math-vs-maths/
- nickff 12y agoNot in Canada.
- pessimizer 12y agoLooks like it's more accurate to say that the English-speaking world generally says maths, excepting North Americans.
- graeme 12y agoIt's a british thing.
- hactually 12y agoIt's not a British thing, it's a standard English thing. I understand it's a difficult language but sometimes we contract words rather than lopping parts off. It's interesting that you guys chose to keep Physics, did Physic sound too weird? :D
- graeme 12y agoPhysic is already a word, means medicine. This side of the pond we use British to mean "not American, originating in United Kingdon". I say this as a Canadian. For parts of our English that differ from American, like colour, we say "it's British". Our dictionaries say the same thing too: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hak6bs1hpnpu3rb/Screenshot%202014-05-21%2017.45.40.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/hak6bs1hpnpu3rb/Screenshot%202014-...
- gph 12y agoPhysics isn't a contraction or abbreviation, it's the entire word. Mathematics is the entire word which all English speakers agree on. The difference is that British-English decided to abbreviate the word to 'maths', while American-English decided to abbreviate it just as 'math'.