Count me out.
Dear Word Detective: I am a sometimes math teacher. Occasionally, even a mathematics teacher. As such, I follow the latest and greatest on my subject and am troubled by the increasing use of the word “maths.” I know you usually look backward to enlighten us on words, but here we see a trend unfolding forward. (And to my ears, it’s a disturbing trend.) Could you explain why “math” now needs to be plural? None of my (younger) maths (?) colleagues are as interested in words as I am and so they shrug off the question. — Bill.
Kids these days, eh? I was never very good at math until a moment in, I believe, tenth grade, when a very gifted math teacher was explaining a trigonometry problem to me. Suddenly, I got it; everything became marvelously clear and I realized with a thrill that I had finally grasped the underlying beauty and grandeur of mathematics. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I promptly forgot everything I had just learned and went on to relentlessly flunk math until they let me give up. To this day I am not allowed to play with my own checkbook.
So I admire folks who genuinely “get it” and have mastered the numerical arts of algebra, trigonometry, geometry, necromancy and so on that constitute the field of knowledge known today as “mathematics.” The word “mathematics” itself, the source of all this “maths” business, comes from the Greek “manthanein,” meaning “to learn,” which is also related to our modern English words “memory” and “mind.” When “mathematics” entered the English language from French in the 14th century (in the form “mathematic”), it actually included any field that involved numerical calculation (astronomy, physics, etc.), and the broad scope of its Greek roots lives on in the English word “polymath,” meaning a person of expertise in many fields.
“Math” as a colloquial short form of “mathematics” first appeared in print quite a while ago, in 1847, although that “math” sported a period (“It rained so that we had a math. lesson indoors.”) and was thus clearly a simple informal abbreviation. “Math” unadorned appeared by the 1870s. “Maths” is a bit newer, first appearing in print in 1911.
There is no difference, however, between “math” and “maths” apart from that “s” on the end of “maths.” Occasionally you’ll hear arguments that “maths” is more proper because it’s short for “mathematics” and thus should be plural. But although the field we call “mathematics” includes multiple disciplines (such as geometry, calculus, etc.), “mathematics” is a collective noun (as is “physics,” etc.), so it’s considered singular. You can tell that from how “mathematics” is treated grammatically: we say “My favorite subject is mathematics,” not “… are mathematics.” The form “mathematics” actually represents what was a common practice, about the time of the first appearance of “mathematic,” of using the plural form of a name of a field of study as a singular noun, as in the case of “acoustics,” “physics,” “linguistics” and many others. Terms that came into English earlier, such as “arithmetic,” didn’t get that “s.”
The only truly relevant difference between “math” and “maths” is usage. “Maths” is commonly used in Great Britain, while “math” is standard in the US. I’m afraid that your cohorts’ sudden affection for “maths,” unless they studied in Britain, may be another case of Anglophiliac posturing by Americans. It’s the same sort of affectation that leads PBS addicts to speak of “the telly” and that gave us the now-omnipresent Brit invention “gone missing” on the news. But while “gone missing” arguably fills a real gap in the American vocabulary (it certainly beats the hyper-dramatic “disappeared”), “maths” on this side of the Atlantic strikes me as silly and vaguely pathetic. But you’re right; it does seem to be spreading. One participant in an online discussion of the “math vs. maths” question I came across reported having recently heard Garrison Keillor say “Do the maths” on his radio show. If Keillor actually did say it, I’m really, really hoping that he was joking.
Math vs Maths
When one thinks of the word Math it is realized that all forms of mathematics included in that set are built form the same set of basic rules. When someone can find another type of Math that is not based on those rules then we will have multiple kinds (not branches of) of Math and can say we have Maths.
I capitalized Math and Maths here for emphasis. It is probably a fair guess that most of the people arguing this topic are not mathematicians.
As a side note, my word processor flags Maths as misspelled but does not flag Math.
English was developed from many Germanic and other languages. To state that English was developed by the English is nonsense. When the language was first blended England did not exist as England.
Mathematics is singular in that it refers to a single body of knowledge but Math refers to the components of that body of knowledge and is therefore plural. No one would argue the incorrectness of changing deer to deers or geese to geeses.
Unfortunately, when some less than literate person makes and propagates errors such as these they eventually become part of the changing language. Elementary and secondary teachers are frequently the source of these errors and their propagation. Many times I have had to correct university students that have the habit of saying things like “ I am going to times it” or “ I plused or minused it”. They claim to have been taught this way and I have no reason to doubt that they were. I have personally heard teachers say these things, possibly out of a misguided attempt to make it easier for the student. However, they have not thought this approach through and it brings another level of illiteracy to the culture. Students are then left to sound mathematically illiterate and few people will take them seriously when they use such childish expressions.
Instead of defending these errors, any intelligent and informed person would wish to correct the error rather than continue to propagate the mishap. The world is full of examples of groups within cultures who just can’t seem to get it right and pass on that ignorance to their progeny and the surrounding population.
Often, it becomes in vogue to emulate these unfortunate beings as children seek their own unique identity. They do not have the experience to know that this emulation is neither unique nor literate. This is why they must be guided away from these influences and set on the path that will lead to their success rather than hinder opportunities. An example is they way American kids try to be “ghetto” or “gangsta”.
It is also the case that adults with low self esteem will attach themselves to cute little things such as the European habit of crossing their sevens so they can feel they are more sophisticated than their peers. These fragile egos may be of above average intelligence but not at a level where they can realize the flaw in this line of thought.
It’s maths because it’s more than one number (always) otherwise it’s called a number, saying math makes you sound stupid, you speak English and the English word is maths, bastardize it all you like it’s still English therefor it’s maths, if you want to speak a different language go ahead but you can’t teach granny how to suck eggs. Americans don’t even know how the whole world expresses the date without trying to mess that up as well. I suspect you forgot alot on the boat trip.