The term “mathematics,” plural in form but treated as singular in English, derives from the Greek plural ta mathematiká (“the mathematical things” – used by Aristotle and others –, from the Greek máthema, subject of “knowledge” or “teaching”) and the Latin loanword mathematica (e.g. in Cicero). Full plural forms are still used in many other European languages today (e.g. French les mathématiques; Spanish las matemáticas). The German singular Mathematik acquired the sense of denoting a unified scientific discipline only at the turn of the 19th century. Before …