unit

英文词源

unit

unit: [16] The term unit was given general currency by the 16th-century English mathematician, astrologer, and magician John Dee. It was formed from Latin ūnus, probably on the analogy of digit, and used as a mathematical term to replace unity as a translation of Euclid’s monás ‘indivisible number’. In a comment added to his introduction to Sir Henry Billingsley’s translation of Euclid, Dee wrote ‘Note the word unit to express the Greek monas, and not unity: as we have all commonly until now used’.

unit (n.)

1560s, "single number regarded as an undivided whole," alteration of unity on the basis of digit. Popularized in John Dee's English translation of Euclid, to express Greek monas (Dee says unity formerly was used in this sense). Meaning "single thing regarded as a member of a group" is attested from 1640s. Extended sense of "a quantity adopted as a standard of measure" is from 1738. Sense of "group of wards in a hospital" is attested from 1893.