Excuse me if this sounds silly. Does anybody know why injections and surjections are sometimes denoted symbolically as $f:V\hookrightarrow W$ and $g:V\twoheadrightarrow W$? How do the arrows $\hookrightarrow$ and $\twoheadrightarrow$ convey the meanings of injections and surjections?
2026-03-30 20:54:17.1774904057
"Etymology" of symbols for injections and surjections
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I like to think $\hookrightarrow$ is reminiscent of the $\subset$ symbol, which is apt since if you have $i\colon A \hookrightarrow B$, then $A \simeq \operatorname{Im}i \subset B$. An injective map is kinda like picking out a subset. I think that Quillen used ↣ for injections (monomorphisms really) instead. For surjective maps $\twoheadrightarrow$ looks like two things being stacked, so like a quotient.