According to OED, this mathematical prepositional use in expressions of calculation was not in the classical Latin word and probably is from North Sea medieval commercial usage of Latin plus and minus to indicate surplus or deficiency of weight or measure. It may be a cousin of the ampersand, formed again from some compressed form of the Latin word Et, or “and,” but definitive proof has yet to be uncovered. The origin and original signification of the "minus sign" is disputed. The sign's ultimate origins are not certain, though it is widely accepted that it comes from the Spanish coat of arms, which carries the two Pillars of Hercules and the motto Non Plus … It may be a cousin of the ampersand, formed again from some compressed form of the Latin word Et, or “and,” but definitive proof has yet to be uncovered. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? The 100 Most Significant Figures in History. Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). Delivered to your inbox! Joke: Guy Nailed to the Plus Sign. How to use a word that (literally) drives some pe... Do you know what languages these words come from? Learn a new word every day. Though it may seem as though Google was casting around for some character—any character—that was not indelibly associated with a rival social network, the plus sign, along with the concept of the “+1,” does have a degree of internet credibility in its own right. A 2004 entry in the Urban Dictionary (which, in this author’s experience, is both surprisingly reliable and reliably profane) explains that replying to a forum post with a terse “+1” signifies agreement, lending weight to the original post without requiring any greater investment on the part of the respondent. Plus/minus sign definition is - the sign ± used to indicate a quantity (such as 2 in 'the square root of 4 is ±2') taking on both an algebraically positive value and its negative and to indicate a plus or minus quantity (such as 4 in 'the population age was 30 ± 4 years') —called also plus/minus symbol. © 2020 TIME USA, LLC. The sign ÷ is called Obelus. The History of #—and 6 Other Symbols that Rule Twitter (and the Web), Who’s Biggest? minus-plus sign (plural minus-plus signs) (mathematics) the symbol ∓, meaning "minus or plus", used alongside the plus-minus sign to show that a negative value is to be taken where the positive value is indicated by the plus-minus sign, and vice versa (as in (x ± 1) / (x ∓ 2), which means (x + 1) / (x - 2) and (x - 1) / (x + 2)). Plus sign: + By Keith Houston @OrkneyDullard Sept. 23, 2013. And though ‘+’ has been used in programming since time immemorial, its debut on the web has taken rather longer. In short, everything they could think of to help his math. It is an Anglo-American symbol for division is of 17th century origin, and it has been used a long to indicate subtraction on the continent of Europe. Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way. Post the Definition of plus/minus sign to Facebook, Share the Definition of plus/minus sign on Twitter. As "deprived of, not having," by 1813.

All rights reserved. Hodder in 1672 wrote "note that a + (plus) sign doth signifie Addition, and two lines thus = Equality, or Equation, but a X thus, Multiplication," no other symbols being used. His was the first English arithmetic to be reprinted in the American colonies in Boston in 1710. What made you want to look up plus/minus sign? From 1708 as "a negative quantity, a quantity subtracted. “Plus/minus sign.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plus%2Fminus%20sign. Of temperature, etc., "below 0 or the lowest point of positive reckoning, belonging to the inverse or negative side," by 1811. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him In the local Catholic school. The use of ‘=’ to mean ‘equals’ is one of those minor advances in mathematics that we take for granted. 'Nip it in the butt' or 'Nip it in the bud'? The origins of the plus sign remain mysterious. Accessed 7 Nov. 2020.

According to OED, this mathematical prepositional use in expressions of calculation was not in the classical Latin word and probably is from North Sea medieval commercial usage of Latin plus and minus to indicate surplus or deficiency of weight or measure. His parents had tried everything…tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers, and more. Like most elementary combinations of lines and points, the symbol is old. It’s so small that we don’t really think about it. The origin and original signification of the "minus sign" is disputed. late 15c., "with subtraction of," from Latin minus "less," neuter of minor "smaller," from PIE *mi-nu-, suffixed form of root root *mei- (2) "small.". Little Zachary was doing very badly in math. When Google belatedly launched their social network in June 2011, the plus symbol figured heavily: Google+ was, of course, named for the character itself; user names on the service are signaled by a ‘+’ just as the ‘@’ precedes Twitter handles; and where Facebook encourages their users to “like” status updates, Google+ instead lets them “+1”. And though ‘+’ has been used in programming since time immemorial, its debut on the web has taken rather longer.

Here Be Dragons: A Creature Identification Quiz. The origins of the plus sign remain mysterious. 1650s, "the minus sign," from minus (prep.). The fraction 2/3 means two divided by 3, and ÷ looks like a fraction. ", on the negative side or lower end of a scale, an arithmetic operation in which the difference between two numbers is calculated. 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'?