1. My question was whether or not esimo is still used in mathematics as a word of
its own to designate the denominator of a fraction. The answers of
Fabio Vicentini, Arturo Mena, and Romulo Lins show me implicitely that it is
not, because they all were explaining the suffix esimo giving me additional
information to what I knew already. Thanks a lot.
Here a quotation from Tartaglia -- it is the for my question essential part of a
longer computation --
men .1. cubo esimo de .10. piu .2. co
The meaning of it written in our language is
- (a^3 / (10 + 2a)).
Thus "esimo de" refers to the whole expression 10 + 2a. It is used as an
operator. So "esimo de" could be read as "over" in English: "minus a cube over
10 + 2a."
2. I found the remark about quebrado most interesting.
3. Algebra. Once I asked an Iraquean student for the meaning of the word
"al-jabre". The first thing he did was to seize his left elbow with his right
hand. This supports the following footnote which is from
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha.
Secunda Parte. Edici'on cr'itica y commentario de Vicente Gaos. Madrid 1987
Footnote 59a on page 229: algebrista: especialista en 'algebra, "arte de
concertar los huescos desencajados y quebrados". COV. Ver RM.
From the general explanations of the edition:
COV = Sebasti'an de Covarrubias, Tesoro de la lengua castellana o espa~nola,
Madrid 1611 (Utilizo la ed. de Mart'in de Riquer, Barcelona 1943. Hay nueva
edici'on: Madrid, Ediciones Turner, 1977)
The quotation from Cervantes is:
En esto fueron razonando los dos, hasta que llegaron a un pueblo, donde fue
ventura hallar un algebrista con quien se cur'o el Sans'on desgraciado.
(Chapter XV, (page 229 in the above edition)).
Best regards, Heinz Lueneburg