Disputatio:Numerical Recipes

message: I see numericus, -a, -um in Elementorum arithmeticae et algebrae sive calculi tum numerici tum literalis compendium, P. Joanne Jacobs, 1771. Also Synopsis algebraica, Joannes Alexander, 1709. Is that acceptable? --Robert.Baruch 22:13, 11 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Insofar as there is some difference of meaning between the Engl. adjectives  numeric(al) and numeral, it's perhaps advisable to tie up this difference with Latin numericus (recentioris Latinitatis) and numeralis, -e (late antiquity), respectively. But I'm not qualified to more specific judgments. But nota bene: "numericalis" (in your text) is a non-word in Latin. --Neander 00:27, 12 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: : Indeed, for I have often made jokes with my Latin instructor about the tendency of English to add, ad infinitem, suffixes. Thus we have not only magic (adj), but also magical (adj), and thus by extension, magicalic, magicacious, magicalicacious, and so on. --Robert.Baruch 00:31, 12 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: :::: Yeah, that's a very nice example of how a generative grammar works, unless its power is constrained by social norms. --Neander 00:47, 12 Iulii 2010 (UTC)

text: ::Cassell's says to translate numerical by a form of the noun numerus. IacobusAmor 00:37, 12 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: :::In this case, 'numerical' comes from the term 'numerical analysis' which by contrast to 'mathematical analysis' consists of the science of efficient computation using computers. But numerical analysis can't be translated by analysis numerorum, which would mean the anlysis of numbers! Thus a different word is needed, numericus by virtue of being found in all Romance language seems appropriate and probably comes from the mediaeval latin term for the subject if some research is done. I believe that Cassell's offers praeceptum for a chemist's recipe. Another possiblity is formula.--Rafaelgarcia 13:12, 12 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: ::::How about Compositiones numeris factae 'Recipes made with (= by means of) numbers'? ¶ Vel Compositiones ad numeros coquendos 'Recipes for cooking numbers'? What's the idiom for recipes (e.g., 'recipes for [cooking] birds', 'recipes for [cooking] fishes', etc.)? IacobusAmor 13:25, 12 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: :::::In this case, it is not numbers that are put together but instructions for computing certain number sets. The recipes are methods, ordered lists of instructions given to a computer for calculating certain things. A word by word translation isn't possible an interpretative one is needed, or a borrowing, or an attested jargon term.--208.58.193.228 23:13, 13 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: ::::::Cassell's has recipe = "instructions for the preparation of medicine or food, compositio (Seneca)" It could be too much to extend the sense. Perhaps a Roman would interpret "Compositio Numerica" as "numerical instructions for the preparation of medicine or food"... Alternatives? --Robert.Baruch 18:21, 14 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: ::::::::Those who cultivate modernized Latin may observe that English recipe = English receipt, which (according to Merriam-Webster) reflects Latin recepta 'received things', and work from there. IacobusAmor 18:57, 14 Iulii 2010 (UTC)

text: :::::::According to Cassell's, numerica isn't available. In any case, it's not too much to extend the sense because the point of the use of recipes in the English phrase, the humorous touch in it, must be to evoke the notion of recipe = '(received) instructions for preparing food'. The recipes are numerical, i.e., pertaining to numbers, fortasse igitur numerorum, or numeratae, or numerandae, or whatever. IacobusAmor 18:54, 14 Iulii 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Numerical