{"id":2641,"date":"2021-03-17T06:57:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T20:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2dpoint.net\/?p=2641"},"modified":"2021-03-17T13:13:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T02:43:45","slug":"why-do-british-say-maths-and-americans-say-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2dpoint.net\/why-do-british-say-maths-and-americans-say-math\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do British say ‘Maths’ and Americans say ‘Math’?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
    \n
  1. Math or Maths is an abbreviation for Mathematics.<\/li>\n
  2. The abbreviation Maths <\/i>is said to have been first used in America in 1818 in a letter that referred to a man named Davies as ass. prof. maths.<\/li>\n
  3. Then came Math<\/i>, again in the US, in {tooltip}1847{end-text} As recorded in the personal diary of someone by the name W.G. Hammond \u2014\u201cIt rained so that we had a math. lesson indoors.<\/i>\u201d{end-tooltip} and Math\u2019s<\/i> in {tooltip}1854.{end-text}In some kind of a report card where students were noted to be \u201cdeficient in Math\u2019s<\/i>.\u201d{end-tooltip}<\/li>\n
  4. The first use of an abbreviation for mathematics as Maths<\/i> in Britain was in {tooltip}1911.{end-text}In a letter from by the poet Wilfred Edward Salter Owen where he wrote, \u201cThe Answers to Maths. Ques. were given us all this morning.\u201d{end-tooltip}<\/li>\n
  5. While the abbreviations have been existing for over 200 years in written form, it was only in the mid-20th century that people started using them as spoken words.<\/li>\n
  6. For quite a while after that, both maths and math <\/i>were used in spoken English in both the US and the UK.<\/li>\n
  7. Then in the 1970s, people in the UK developed a liking for maths<\/i> and since then, math<\/i> is considered inappropriate in British English.<\/li>\n
  8. The Americans argue that since mathematics is not plural, e.g. we say \u201cMy favourite subject is mathematics\u201d and not \u201cMy favourite subject are mathematics\u201d, the abbreviation should be math <\/i>and not maths.<\/i><\/li>\n
  9. The British argument in favour of maths<\/i> is that since mathematics ends with an S, the short-form should be maths.<\/i><\/li>\n
  10. But then, the short form for facsimile is Fax and not Faxie; so, the argument of keeping the last letter intact in the short-form proves invalid.<\/li>\n
  11. Some believe that since the word \u2018mathematics\u2019 comes from the Greek \u2018mathematika\u2019 and Greeks used to put A<\/i> in the end to denote plurals, the British in the beginning might have taken mathematics as a plural.<\/li>\n
  12. However, people now know that mathematics is a mass noun, like sugar \u2014 too much sugar is still sugar and not sugars.<\/li>\n
  13. So, maths<\/i> is likely to have stuck with the British more out of a habit than because of a lack of understanding of the plural form or anything else.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Also Read:<\/strong>
    \nWhy Brits and Americans spell words such as ‘color’ or ‘organise’ differently?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
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