cossist
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A practitioner of proto-algebra in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.
adj
Pertaining to the cossists and their methods; cossic.
Example Sentences
- "The word "cossist" comes from the Italian cosa, meaning "thing." The cosa was the mystery that algebra was designed to solve -- it was the name given to the unknown quantity in an equation (our modern x)."
- "So also were trained the Cossists and Rechenmeister of Germany in his tradition."
- "Clavius's treatise is, first of all, reckoned as one of the textbooks of cossist algebra."
- "Cossist algebra constituted essentially a sophisticated form of arithmetical problem-solving. Often it is difficult when reading a cossist text to discern where computational arithmetic leaves off and algebra begins."
Etymology
From Italian cossista, from the word cosa (“thing”), in reference to an unknown quantity to be determined + -ista. See rule of coss.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: cossista