Abstract
The aim of the paper is to make clear the process how the mathematical terms and signs had been standardized to the modern ones by investigating the mathematical dictionaries in the Meiji-Period. For this purpose, I used the dictionaries as follows ;
(A) Kanichi Hashizume, EISAN-DOKUGAKU, 1871
(B) kanichi Hashizume, YOSAN-YAKUGO-RYAKUKAI, 1872
(C) Masakuni Yamada, English & Japanese Mathematical Dictionary, 1878
(D) Tokyo-Sugaku-Butsurigaku-Kwai, SUGAKU YAKUGO, 1885
(E) Rikitaro Fujisawa, Vocabulary of Mathematical Terms in English and Japanese, 1st Edition, 1889
(F) Rikitaro Fujisawa, Vocabulary of Mathematical Terms in English and Japanese, 2nd Edition, 1891
(G) Masakazu Komano, Mathematical Dictionary in English and Japanese with Terms of Book-Keeping, 1895
(H) Tokichi Miyamoto, An English-Japanese New Mathematical Dictionary, 1902
(I) Educational Headquarter of Navy, SUGAKU-YAKUGO-SYU, 1903
(J) Kamenosuke Nagasawa, Mathematical Dictionary with the solutions of exercises in Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry, 1905
(K) Sanyo-Gakuryo, New Dictionary of Mathematics, 1907
These three points were made clear as follows ;
(1) The terms of the deductive system were standardized in (E) and (F), except for the term “Postulate”.
(2) On the terms of the names of subjects, “Algebra”, “Geometry”, “Analytical Geometry”, “Differential Calculus” and “Integral Calculus” were standardized in 1890’s, also “Arithmetic” and “Trigonometry” were in 1900’s. However, “Probability” and “Statistics” were not standardized in Meiji-Period.
(3) On the mathematical signs, Masakazu Komano added twenty-four signs in his dictionary (G) to the table of the mathematical signs of (Y), and Tokichi Miyamoto made a new table of mathematical signs in (H).
