mathesis

See also: Mathesis

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman mathesis, Middle French mathesie, and their source, Late Latin mathesis (“astrology, liberal arts, science”), from Ancient Greek μάθησις (máthēsis, “learning”), from the same base as μανθάνω (manthánō, “I learn”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məˈθiːsɪs/, /ˈmaθəsɪs/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (Southern England)

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Noun

mathesis (countable and uncountable, plural matheses)

1. (now rare) Mental calculation or discipline; science, especially mathematical learning. [from 15th c.]
   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:

     Forget the Boys, forget your loyalties to your Dead, first of all to Rebekah, for she, they, are but distractions, temporal, flesh, ever attempting to drag the Uranian Devotee back down out of his realm of pure Mathesis, of that which abides.

2. The science of establishing a systematic order for things. (After Foucault.) [from 1970s]
   • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN

     I’m using 'mathesis' — a universal science of measurement and order […]

Translations

learning

• German: Mathesis f

Anagrams

• Mathises, atheisms

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek μάθησις (máthēsis).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /maˈtʰeː.sis/, [mäˈt̪ʰeːs̠ɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /maˈte.sis/, [mäˈt̪ɛːs̬is]

Noun

mathēsis f (genitive mathēsis or mathēseōs or mathēsios); third declension

(Late Latin)

1. (in general) the action of learning, knowledge, science
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Prudentius to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Sidonius Apollinaris to this entry?)
   1. (in particular) mathematics, mathesis
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Cassiodorus to this entry?)
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Fabius Planciades Fulgentius to this entry?)
   2. (in particular) astrology
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Aelius Spartianus to this entry?)
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Julius Firmicus Maternus to this entry?)
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Prudentius to this entry?)

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mathēsis	mathēsēs mathēseis
Genitive	mathēsis mathēseōs mathēsios	mathēsium
Dative	mathēsī	mathēsibus
Accusative	mathēsim mathēsin mathēsem1	mathēsēs mathēsīs
Ablative	mathēsī mathēse1	mathēsibus
Vocative	mathēsis mathēsi	mathēsēs mathēseis

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

References

• “măthēsis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mathesis in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• măthēsis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 954/2.