Etymology Dictionary

ALGEBRA,  calculation by symbols.  (Low Lat.,—Arab.)   It occurs in a quotation from Swift in Todd's Johnson.   α. Brachet (s. v. algèbre) terms algebra a medieval scientific Latin form; and Prof. De Morgan, in Notes and Queries, 3 S. ii. 319, cites a Latin poem of the 13th century in which 'computation' is oddly called 'ludus algebræ almucgrabalæque.'   β. This phrase is a corruption of al jabr wa al mokābalah, lit. the putting-together-of-parts and the equation, to which the nearest equivalent English phrase is 'restoration and reduction.'   γ. In Palmer's Pers. Dictionary, col. 165, we find 'Arabic jabr, power, violence; restoration, setting a bone; reducing fractions to integers in Arithmetic; aljabr wa’lmukábalah, algebra.'—Arabic jabara, to bind together, to consolidate.   Mukábalah is lit. 'comparison;' from mukábil, opposite, comparing; Palmer's Pers. Dict. col. 591.   Cf. Hebrew gábbar, to be strong.   Der. algebra-ic, algebra-ic-al, algebra-ist.