Forms: 3 arsmetike, 4 -metique, 4–5 -metyk, ars metrik(e, 4–6 arsmetrik(e, 5 -metryk(e, -metrique, -matryk, arce metrik, 6 arsmetrycke, arsemetricke; 5 arismetrik; 6 arithmetryk, -metricke, -metike, -metique, 6–7 arithmatick(e, -matique, -meticke, 6–8 -metick, 7 -metic. [orig. a. OF. arismetique, ad. Pr. and late L. arismetica, for L. arithmētica, a. Gr. ἡ ἀριθμητική (sc. τέχνη) the art of counting, f. ἀριθμέ-ειν to number, count, reckon, f. ἀριθμός number. Erroneously referred in ME. to L. ars metrica ‘art of measure,’ and made into arsmetrike, the common form from 14th to 16th c., which was gradually corrected, through arismetrik in Caxton, arithmetricke in Sir T. More, to arithmetyke in Recorde, 1543. In 16th c. it was also sometimes conformed in ending to mathematick, and to geometry: see ARSMETRY.]
1. The science of numbers; the art of computation by figures.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 792. Egipte clerkes … hem lerede, witterlike, Astronomiȝe and arsmetike.
c. 1305. St. Edmund E. E. P. (1862), 77. Arsmetrike is a lore: þat of figours al is.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1040. That geometry or arsmetrike can [v.r. Ars Metrik(e, arsmetrik, arce metrik].
c. 1400. Cov. Myst., 189. Also of augrym and of asmatryk.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 103. Arismetrik & astrologie.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 604. The .vii. artes or scyences lyberall … grammer, logyke, rethoryke, musyke, arsmetryke, gemetry, and astronomye.
1528. More, Heresyes, I. Wks. III/1. Arithmetricke meete for marchauntes.
1530. Rastell, Purgat., II. xix. Methematycall scyens as geometrye, arithmetryk.
1543. Recorde, Gr. Arts, 6. Bothe names are corruptly writen: Arsmetrike for Arithmetyke, as the Grekes call it, and Awgrym for Algorisme, as Arabyans sounde it.
1589. Pasquil’s Ret., B iij. [It] multiplies … by Arithmaticke, it makes a thousand of one.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, 52. These roguish Arsmetrique gibbets or flesh-hookes, and cyphers or round oos.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. ii. 16. Arithmetic … is supposed to have been first invented by the Phenicians.
1750. Harris, Hermes (1841), 202. Arithmetic is excellent for the gauging of liquors.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamphl., vi. (1872), 200. Is Arithmetic,—a thing more fixed by the Eternal, than the laws of justice.
2. Arithmetical knowledge, computation, reckoning.
1607. Shaks., Cor., III. i. 245. But now ’tis oddes beyond Arithmetick.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 549, ¶ 1. Such innumerable articles, that I want arithmetic to cast them up.
1807. Wordsw., Sonn. Liberty, I. xxiv. What if our numbers barely could defy The arithmetic of babes.
3. A treatise on computation.
1623. J. Johnson (title), Arithmetick.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 92, ¶ 5. I would advise all young wives to make themselves Mistresses of Wingate’s arithmetick.
