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'Calculate' comes from Latin calculus, 'small pebble'. Romans did their sums by moving pebbles across a counting board marked with lines for units, fives, tens and so on, and the pebbles gave their name to the reckoning itself.

Etymology

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Calculus is a diminutive of calx, 'limestone', the same Latin word behind English 'chalk' and the element calcium. As pebbles on the counting board came to stand for reckoning itself, Latin called a person who kept accounts or taught arithmetic a calculator. From the 17th century 'calculus' also became the name of branches of mathematics, most famously the calculus developed by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz for working out rates of change and areas. Medicine kept the stone: doctors still use 'calculus' for hard deposits that form in the body, so a kidney stone is a renal calculus and the hardened tartar on teeth is dental calculus.

Türkçe oku
İngilizcedeki “calculate” (hesaplamak) sözcüğü, Latincede “küçük çakıl taşı” anlamına gelen calculus'tan gelir. Romalılar hesap yaparken, birler, beşler ve onlar için çizgilerle bölünmüş bir sayı tahtasında çakıl taşlarını kaydırırdı. Hesap yapmayı anlatan Latince sözcükler de adını bu taşlardan aldı.

Calculus, Latincede “kireçtaşı” anlamına gelen calx sözcüğünün küçültme biçimidir. Türkçeye Fransızca üzerinden geçen kalsiyum ve kalker sözcükleri de aynı kökten gelir. Sayı tahtasındaki çakıllar zamanla hesabın kendisini anlatır oldu; Latincede hesap tutan ya da aritmetik öğreten kişiye calculator denirdi. 17. yüzyıldan itibaren calculus, matematiğin bazı dallarının da adı oldu. Bunların en ünlüsü, Türkçede kalkülüs ya da diferansiyel ve integral hesap diye bilinen daldır; Isaac Newton ile Gottfried Leibniz bu yöntemi değişim hızlarını ve alanları hesaplamak için geliştirdi. Tıp ise taş anlamını korudu: Vücutta oluşan sert birikintilere bugün de calculus denir; böbrek taşı ve diş taşı bunun örnekleridir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Calculation
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