Meanings
plural matheses
- archaiccountableuncountableMental calculation or discipline; science, especially mathematical learning.First known use 15th c.
Forget the Boys, forget your loyalties to your Dead, first of all to Rebekah, for she, they, are but distractions, temporal, flesh, ever attempting to drag the Uranian Devotee back down out of his realm of pure Mathesis, of that which abides.
1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon - countableuncountableThe science of establishing a systematic order for things. (After Foucault.)First known use 1970s
I’m using 'mathesis' — a universal science of measurement and order […]
1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN)
Origin
- Ancient Greekμάθησις“learning”
- Late Latinmathesis“astrology, liberal arts, science”
- Middle Frenchmathesie
- Anglo-Normanmathesis
- Englishmathesis
From Anglo-Norman mathesis, Middle French mathesie, and their source, Late Latin mathesis (“astrology, liberal arts, science”), from Ancient Greek μάθησις (máthēsis, “learning”), from the same base as μανθάνω (manthánō, “to learn”).
More words from Anglo-Norman, Middle French, Late Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
German Mathesis
- Mathesislearning
Cite this entry
mathesis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mathesis
“mathesis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mathesis. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mathesis,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mathesis.
Source: mathesis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.