Editing Simon Stevin (section)

=== Neologisms ===

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Stevin thought the [[Dutch language]] to be excellent for scientific writing, and he translated many of the mathematical terms to Dutch. As a result, Dutch is one of the few Western European languages that have many mathematical terms that do not stem from Greek or Latin. This includes the very name ''wiskunde'' (mathematics).

His eye for the importance of having the scientific language be the same as the language of the craftsman may show from the dedication of his book ''De Thiende'' ('The Disme' or 'The Tenth'): 'Simon Stevin wishes the stargazers, surveyors, carpet measurers, body measurers in general, coin measurers and tradespeople good luck.' Further on in the same pamphlet, he writes: "[this text] teaches us all calculations that are needed by the people without using fractions. One can reduce all operations to adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with integers."

Some of the words he invented evolved: 'aftrekken' (''subtract'') and 'delen' (''divide'') stayed the same, but over time 'menigvuldigen' became 'vermenigvuldigen' (''multiply'', the added 'ver' emphasizes the fact it is an action). 'Vergaderen' (''gathering'') became 'optellen' (''add'' lit. ''count up'').

Another example is the Dutch word for diameter: 'middellijn', lit.: line through the middle.

The word 'zomenigmaal' (''quotient'' lit. 'that many times') has been replaced by 'quotiënt' in modern-day Dutch.

Other terms did not make it into modern day mathematical Dutch, like 'teerling' (''[[Dice|die]]'', although still being used in the meaning as die), instead of cube.