abacus
abacus Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5 ed.)
... A counting device consisting of rods on which beads can be moved so as to represent numbers. http://abacus.etherwork.net/Lee/ A description of how one abacus...
abacus Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art and Architecture (2 ed.)
... A flat block of masonry on the top of a capital , which is the transition from the capital to the architrave. In the Doric Order ( see order ) the abacus is undecorated; in the Ionic and Corinthian Orders, the abacus has decorative...
abacus Quick reference
A Dictionary of Accounting (5 ed.)
... An ancient device for performing arithmetic calculations by sliding beads along rods or in grooves. Despite the spread of electronic calculators and computers, the abacus is still widely used in the Far...
abacus Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (2 ed.)
... [Ar] The uppermost member of a capital, set atop a pillar, and, on classical buildings, in contact with the bottom of the entablature . The abacus resembles in form the flat slab on which it was...
abacus Quick reference
A Dictionary of Construction, Surveying and Civil Engineering (2 ed.)
... In classical architecture, the flat uppermost slab at the top of the capital of a...
abacus Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
... . The abacus uses counters to carry out operations in arithmetic. In the Renaissance the instrument usually took the form of a board with lines to mark the positions for counters. More recent instruments use beads on strings or rods, but the principle is the same. In western Europe, the use of the abacus was eventually replaced by written methods of calculation. Probably because the mathematics involved was elementary, the abacus lent its name to elementary instruction in mathematics. See abacus schools . In architecture, the term abacus was (and is...
abacus Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2 ed.)
...if fingers were like screwdrivers, we would not need screwdrivers, so, if the brain worked like an abacus, bead-counters would not be so helpful. But perhaps the abacus serves as a memory. Our language reflects the importance of the abacus throughout history. The word ‘calculate’ comes from the Latin word for a pebble, and the term ‘Exchequer’ derives from the chequered table on which counters or jettons were moved to reckon the nation's accounts (the abacus continued to be used for British governmental accounting into the 18th century). The mechanical...
abacus Reference library
Anthony Quiney
The Oxford Companion to Architecture
... A flat slab forming the top of a capital, with a different shape for each order . The abacus probably originated in primitive classical architecture, built from timber, as a means of protecting the vertical grain of the posts from the weather and their consequent tendency to split, and became formalized when stone was substituted for timber. Anthony...
abacus Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (2 ed.)
... The slab at the top of a capital which supports the entablature above. In the classical Orders the Greek Doric abacus is a thick square slab; in Greek Ionic , Tuscan , Roman Doric and Ionic it is square with a moulded lower edge; and in the Corinthian and Composite it has concave sides with the corners cut...
abacus Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Mathematical tool used since ancient times in the Middle and Far East for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. One form consists of beads strung on wires and arranged in...
Abacus Quick reference
A Dictionary of Travel and Tourism
... 1. Formerly Mycrom Computers Ltd British travel agents’ computerized data accounting and ticketing system. See also Andromeda . 2. A GDS (Global Distribution Service) serving the Far East, based in Singapore. Abacus International is owned by a consortium of Asia's leading airlines including All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Dragonair, Philippine Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, SilkAir, and Singapore Airlines. Abacus is now backed by US-owned Sabre , although it was formerly...
Abacus Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... A counting device that traditionally consists of a frame holding rods on which ten beads can slide. One rod represents units, the next tens, the next hundreds and so on. The abacus is still in regular use in eastern countries, and in China it is known as hsüan pan , ‘computing tray’. Its English name comes from Greek abax , a term for a board covered with sand on which calculations could be traced, itself probably from a Semitic word related to Hebrew ābhāk , ‘dust’. The multiplication table invented by pythagoras is called Abacus Pythagoricus. See...
abacus Reference library
Encyclopedia of Semiotics
...the actual items. The abacus method of reckoning also allows one to perform operations on virtual quantities irrespective of whether or not these quantities correspond to real objects. The word calculus comes from the Latin word for pebble and refers to the use of pebbles in the earliest forms of abacus reckoning. Versions of the abacus small enough to be held in one hand have been found in Roman archaeological sites. It is in such form, on various scale, that the abacus was used until the advent of modern calculators. This kind of abacus consists of a frame...
Abacus Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture
... . Uppermost element of a capital on a column or pilaster. On the Doric, Ionic and Tuscan orders of architecture it is square in plan, but on the Corinthian each face is convex ( see Architecture , and Orders, architectural ,...
abacus Quick reference
A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (3 ed.)
... ( pl . abaci ) 1. Flat-topped plate or tailloir , the upper member of a column capital supporting the architrave . The Greek – Doric abacus is the simplest, consisting of a square unmoulded block, called plinthus , but abaci vary with each Order . 2. Flat slab supported on a podium or legs, used as a sideboard or for the display of plate, etc., in Antiquity. 3. Panel on an Antique ...
abacus Reference library
William David Ross and Michael Vickers
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
... ( ἄβαξ , ἀβάκιον ) , a counting-board, the usual aid to reckoning in antiquity. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans alike used a board with vertical columns, on which (working from right to left) units, tens, hundreds, or (where money was in question) e.g. ⅛ obols, ¼ obols, ½ obols, obols, drachmae, sums of 10, 100, 1,000 drachmae, and talents were inscribed. When an addition sum was done, the totals of the columns were carried to the left, as in our ordinary addition. The numbers might be marked in writing or by pebbles, counters, or pegs. William David...
Abacus Reference library
Margaret SANKEY
Berkshire Encyclopedia of China
...Abacus Suànpán 算盘 The abacus, or counting plate ( suan pan ), is a manual computing device used since ancient times in China as well as in a number of ancient civilizations. The Latin word abacus has its roots in the Greek word abax , meaning slab, which itself might have originated in the Semitic term for sand. In its early Greek and Latin forms the abacus was said to be a flat surface covered with sand in which marks were made with a stylus and pebbles. The Chinese abacus as we know it today evolved to become a frame holding thirteen vertical...
abacus schools Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
... schools . From the late thirteenth century onwards, many towns and guilds paid an ‘abacus master’ to teach mathematics to a given number of boys who intended to engage in commerce or the crafts. There were also private abacus schools, in all of which teaching was in the vernacular. Such schools are best documented in Tuscany, but similar developments seem to have occurred elsewhere. With the rise of international banking and the growth of commerce, the usefulness of mathematics was becoming increasingly obvious. The schools have no direct connection with...
abacus Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology
... XVI. — L. abacus , f. Gr. ábax , abak- ...
