Algorisme

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A systematic procedure for computing with numbers by following fixed steps in decimal notation ; the positional number system based on Arabic or decimal numerals
2. A step-by-step process for performing arithmetic using the ten digits ; the place-value numeral system that originated with Arabic mathematicians
3. An older term for a rule-based method of working out sums with decimal figures ; the Hindu-Arabic positional notation that such methods rely upon

Etymology: Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a scholar at the House of Wisdom in ninth-century Baghdad, and he wrote a book explaining calculation with Hindu numerals and place value. Its Latin translation rendered his name as "Algoritmi", and that name gave English its word for the method. Via Old French "augorisme", the Middle English form "algorisme" meant computing with the new Arabic numerals, as opposed to counting on a reckoner or abacus. Over the following centuries the sense broadened to any fixed, step-by-step procedure for solving a problem. The modern spelling "algorithm" comes from a later mistake. Writers likely associated the word with Greek "arithmos", meaning "number", and added the "th", which has no basis in the Arabic name.