Friday, May 17, 2024

Which of us have ARITHMOMANIA?

     One of my favorite email subscriptions is to A.Word.A.Day --  a day-to-day collection each week (gathered by Anu Garg)  of five related terms to learn anjoy.  On April 15, I learned the new word arithmomania  -- and quote the following from Garg's posting.

arithmomania     PRONUNCIATION: (uh-rith-muh-MAY-nee-uh)

MEANING:   noun: An obsessive preoccupation with numbers, calculations, and counting.

ETYMOLOGY:   From Greek arithmo- (number) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze). Earliest documented use: 1892.

NOTES  If you go for a bicycle ride and can’t help but determine the distance, time traveled, average speed, elevation gain, and more, chances are you have arithmomania. If you feel it necessary to count the number of steps in a staircase as you go up or down, chances are you have arithmomania. If you count the number of floors in buildings as you walk through a downtown area, arithmomania. 

I only count the number of words in a dictionary.

More recently, during the week of April 29, 2024, Garg offered a full week of math words -- found here:  elliptic, triangulation, squarely, tangent, asymptote.  And his posting ends with his poetic quote from Duke Ellington:

        I don't need time. 
        What I need is a deadline.

W -Duke Ellington, jazz pianist, composer, and conductor (29 Apr 1899-1974)

A.Word.A.Day also was included in this posting back in 2013.

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