Some conventional math notations seem arbitrary to English speakers but were mnemonic to non-English speakers who started them. To give a simple example, Z is the symbol for integers because of the German word Zahl(en) 'number(s)'. What are some more examples?
2026-03-31 05:34:03.1774935243
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Notations that are mnemonic outside of English
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$\ln()$ for "logarithmus naturalis"?
My advisor also told me that the "socle of a ring" makes a little more sense when you know that "socle" is an architecture term for the support underneath a column or pedastal, and so the socle of a ring acts as a kind of "support for the ring." In some languages, the word for "pedestal" is something like "socle," so the meaning is less hidden there.
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When I put "socle" into google translate, it autodetects it as "plinth" which is a relatively better-known word in English. It turns into "zócalo" in Spanish, sòcol in Catalan, Sockel in German, zoccolo in Italian, cokół in Polish, soco in Romanian, and 虹晶 in Mandarin.
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A function is often called càdlàg if it is right-continuous and admits left limits. This term is from the french continue à droite, limite à gauche.
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In homology one has a sequence of "differentials". Their images are usually denoted $B(X)$, apparently from the german word for "images", and their kernels $Z(X)$ from the german word for "cycles".
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The Klein $V$-group is the four-element group with generators $a$ and $b$ and $a^2 = b^2 = (ab)^2 = 1$. The $V$ is for vierergruppe = "four-group".
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Łukasiewicz notation for logic represents $\land \lor \leftrightarrow$ with the letters $K A E$ respectively, so that for example $r\lor(p\land q)$ is $ArKpq$. $K A E$ are the initials of the Polish words koniunkcja, alternatywa, ekwiwalencja.
I don't know why Łukasiewicz used $C$ to represent material implication.
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The logical-or symbol $\lor$ is a stylized letter ‘V’, the first letter of the Latin word vel.
(The $\land$ symbol arose later, derived by analogy from $\lor$.)
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The reason the "Klein bottle" is called a bottle has its origin in something of a German pun on Fläche/Flasche; see here
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Gabriel introduced the notation $\text{Sex}(\mathcal A,\mathcal B)$ to denote the category of left exact functors from $\mathcal A$ to $\mathcal B$. This because the Latin word for left (which is sinister) starts with an S.
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The etymology of the $\sin$ function has a colorful history - it comes from sinus, the latin word for... well, bosom. This was due to a mistranslation from Arabic text in the 12th century: The word jaib means bosom, and since Arabic is written without short vowels, it was written essentially as jb. But jb was also the spelling of jiba, which was a transliteration of the Sanskrit word for chord (the mathematical chord, ie a line passing through a circle, half the length of which is the sine of the angle from the center of the cicle).
In topology the letter $F$ is commonly used to denote a closed set, from French fermé 'closed [set]'. The common use of $K$ to denote a compact set is probably from German kompakt, as in kompakte Menge 'compact set' and kompakter Raum 'compact space'. The common use of $k$ to denote an arbitrary field is probably from German Körper 'field'. The common use of $G$ for an open set is probably from German Gebiet 'region', though as a mathematical term it now means 'non-empty, connected, open set'. The notation $G_\delta$-set for the intersection of countably many open sets combines this $G$ with $\delta$ for German Durchschnitt 'intersection'. Presumably $F_\sigma$-set for the union of countably many closed sets is from the $F$ above and $\sigma$ for French somme 'sum'. The $T$ in the names of the separation axioms $T_1,T_2$, etc. is from German Trennungsaxiom 'separation axiom'.