Ask A Scientist Mathematics Archive

Question: A third grade class would like to know the origin of plus and 
minus.
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That question calls for an expert on the very early history of 
mathematics, which I am not.  Hopefully, you will get another response in 
addition to mine, but I will share what little I know.  We have some very old 
records from ancient times of the mathematics done by the Greeks, Hindus, 
Egyptians, etc.  It is clear from this evidence that notation such as + and -, 
nor the words "plus" or "minus" were not invented until much later (perhaps 
the middle ages).  The ancient Greeks and earlier peoples used words such as 
"combined with" and "removed from" to talk about adding and subtracting.  
Problems were not written in symbols, but rather stated in words.  The Germans 
started using the + and -signs about 500 years ago, but others may have used 
those or similar symbols before that time.  The words plus and minus were most 
likely borrowed from the Latin language.  For example, "minus" is similar to 
part of the word "diminished", and both come from a Latin word meaning "take 
away part of".  The phrase "plus or minus" is very old.  We have found old 
Roman tombstones which read something like "94 years plus or minus" just as we 
might say "94 years more or less".
Robert Allan Chaffer
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