....
> What is even more interesting is that, in former times, that is what an
> algebraist was suppose to mend: according to Don Quixote, an algebraist
> took care of the broken arm or leg of, if memory serves, a "bachiller
> Piero Sa'nchez").
Open up the Oxford English Dictionary, which is put together 'on historical
principles', i.e. first meanings first:
algebra (<ph>"AldZIbra</ph>). Also 6 algeber, algiebar.
[a. It. alg<egrave>bra (also Sp. and med.L.), ad. Arab. al-jebr the
redintegration or reunion of broken parts, f. jabara to reunite,
redintegrate, consolidate, restore; hence, the surgical treatment of
fractures, bone-setting. Also in phr. kilm al-jebr
wa<cq>l-muqa<nfmac>balah, i.e. <oq>the science of redintegration and
equation (opposition, comparison, collation), <cq> the Arabic name for
algebraic computation. In this sense the first part of the Arabic title
was taken into It. in 1202, as alg<egrave>bra; the second part,
almuca<nfmac>bala, was used by some med.L. writers in the same sense. The
16th c. Eng. algeber (fancifully identified by early writers with the name
of the Arabic chemist Geber) was either taken directly from Arab. or from
Fr. alg<egrave>bre; but the It. alg<egrave>bra became the accepted form
(accented <ph>"</ph>algebra by 1663).]
1. The surgical treatment of fractures; bonesetting. (A popular sense
which probably survived from the Arabs in Spain; still in Sp.) Obs.
1541 R. Copland Guydon<cq>s Formul. X iij, The helpes of Algebra & of
dislocations.
1565 J. Halle Hist. Expost. 19 This Araby worde Algebra sygnifyeth as
well fractures of bones, etc. as sometyme the restauration of the same.
[1598 Florio, Alg<egrave>bra [It.] the arte of bone-setting.
1623 Minsheu, Alg<eacu>bra [Sp.] bone-setting. Algebr<iacu>sta, a bone-setter.]
2. The department of mathematics which investigates the relations and
properties of numbers by means of general symbols; and, in a more abstract
sense, a calculus of symbols combining according to certain defined laws.
'Hence various algebras: as commutative algebra, in which the symbols obey
the law of commutation; linear algebra, in which the symbols are linearly
connected; quadruple algebra, or quaternions; and the algebra of logic, in
which the symbols represent not numbers or quantities, but other objects of
thought, as classes or qualities of things, or statements concerning
things.' R. Harley, F.R.S.
1551 Recorde Pathw. Know. ii. Pref., Also the rule of false position, with
dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of
Algeber.
1557 <em><em> Whetst. E iv, This Rule is called the Rule of Algeber, after
the name of the inuentoure, as some men think..But of his vse it is rightly
called the rule of equation.
1570 Billingsley Eucl. x. Introd. 229 That more secret and subtill part of
Arithmetike, commonly called Algebra.
1570 Dee Math. Pr<ae>f. 6 The very name is Algiebar, and not Algebra: as by
the Arabien Auicen, may be proued.
1579 Digges Stratiot. 70 Farther to wade in the large sea of Algebra and
numbers cossical.
Ibid. 55 This Art of Algebra or Rule of Cosse as the Italians terme it.
1610 B. Jonson Alchem. i. i. (1616) 607 Your alchemy, and your algebra.
1621 Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. (1657) 45 Geber, that first inventer of Algebra.
1658 Phillips, Algebra, or the Analytical Art.
1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 126 And wisely tell what hour o<cq> th<cq> day The
clock does strike, by Algebra.
1775 Burke Sp. Conc. Amer. Wks. III. 33 A proportion beyond all the powers
of algebra to equalise and settle.
1781 Cowper Convers. 22 And if it weigh the importance of a fly, The scales
are false, or algebra a lie.
1837 Hallam Hist. Lit. (1847) I. 238 [In Italian] co or cosa stands for the
unknown quantity; whence algebra was sometimes called the cossic art.
1849 De Morgan Double Algebra ii. i. 98 Algebra..got its Arabic name, I
have no doubt, from the restoration of the term which completes the square,
and reduction of the equation by extracting the square root. The solution
of a quadratic equation was the most prominent part of the Arabic algebra.
1860 Motley Hist. Netherl. III. 102 Passionless as algebra.
David Fowler