Where Did the Term "Math" Come From?

Date: 6 Jan 1995 11:48:52 -0500
From: Lisa Schreiber
Subject: (none)

Dear Dr. Math,

        Where did the term math come from and what does the word 
math mean?

        Thanx for your help.

                                Lisa Schreiber

Date: 6 Jan 1995 15:52:31 -0500
From: Anonymous
Newsgroups: local.dr-math
Subject: Re: The word Math

Hi Lisa!

     According to my math history book ("A History of Mathematics", by 
Carl Boyer), Pythagoras is supposed to have come up with the word 
Mathematics, which means "that which is learned."  Yes--that's the 
Pythagoras of the Pythagorean Theorem, which, incidentally, he didn't 
make up.  He was the head of a kind of math cult/religion/community/
school in what is now Italy, about 2500 years ago.  

                                  Elizabeth, a math doctor