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Centesimus Octogesimus Quintus: November 5, 2009: Lemniscus

Theme for this month: Nerdy words

So, this month's theme is pretty self-explanatory. The Latin behind math terms, bio, etc. (for a sneak preview, check out calculus-- http://cawallin.googlepages.com/centesimusquartusdecimus). I was feeling a bit deprived of nerdiness at this school where some people actually do not know what xkcd is (*gasp*), and by chance found cool words to feature.

lemniscus, -i, m.

Definition: a ribbon attached to a garland as a sign of great honor; (medical) a wad or roll of lint

[the Latin definition as always comes from the Oxford Latin Dictionary]

Sententia: Livy 33.33.1-2

[1] ludis vero dismissis cursu prope omnes tendere ad imperatorem Romanum, [2] ut ruente turba in unum adire, contigere dextram cupientum, coronas lemniscosque iacientium haud procul periculo fuerit.

Certainly after the games were dismissed, nearly all were heading for the Roman leader at a run, so that because of the crowd rushing into one spot of men desiring to go into one spot, to touch the right hand, of men throwing wreathes and pendant ribbons, danger seemed nigh.

So, this word could hardly be called common. Lewis and Short only records it being used 5 times, and the Oxford Latin dictionary doesn't cite many more than that. However, its claim to fame for anyone who has taken precalculus is that Bernoulli made this weird figure which looks like an infinity sign which can be graphed in polar coordinates by the equation

$r^2 = 2a^2 \cos 2\theta\,$

. I must admit I know next to nothing about biology, but according to Wiki, this word is also used in anatomy to describe "a bundle of secondary sensory fibers within the brain stem" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemniscus_(anatomy)). And as long as I am citing Wikipedia, some of these lemniscates look really cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial_lemniscate.

A Lemniscate!

courtesy of Wikipedia

NB: Bold and underline == macron

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