abaci

Noun

abacus (plural abaci or abacuses)

1. (historical, obsolete) A table or tray scattered with sand which was used for calculating or drawing.
   • He [Gerebertus] was þe firste þat took abacus of Sarsyns, and ȝaf rules þerynne, þat mowe unneþe be understonde of þe kunnyngeste men of þe craft, þe whiche craftes men beþ cleped abaciste. Marianus. Abacus is a table wiþ þhe whiche schappes be portrayed and i-peynt in powdre, and abacus is a craft...[a. 1387, Ranulphi Higden [i.e., Ranulf Higden], chapter X, in John Trevisa, transl., edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby, Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis; together with the English...
2. A device used for performing arithmetical calculations; (rare) a table on which loose counters are placed, or (more commonly) an instrument with beads sliding on rods, or counters in grooves, with one row of beads or counters representing units, the next tens, etc.
   • I’ve heard merchants still use an abacus for adding things up in China.
3. The uppermost portion of the capital of a column immediately under the architrave, in some cases a flat oblong or square slab, in others more decorated.
   • The only mouldings uſed, both by the Saxon and Norman architects, were the torus, the ſcotia or reverſed torus, the cavetto or hollow moulding, and a kind of chamfered faſcia, which latter was generally uſed for impoſts or abacuſes to their capitals.1795 June 11, 18, 25, William Wilkins, “XIV. An Essay towards the History of the Venta Icenorum of the Romans, and of Norwich Castle; with Remarks on the Architecture of the Anglo-Saxons and Normans....
4. (Ancient-Rome, historical, Ancient Greece) A board, tray, or table, divided into perforated compartments for holding bottles, cups, or the like; a kind of buffet, cupboard, or sideboard.
   • ABACUS, among the ancients, was a kind of cupboard or buffet. Livy, deſcribing the luxury into which the Romans degenerated after the conqueſt of Aſia, ſays they had their abaci, beds, &c. plated over with gold.1817, “ABACUS”, in Encyclopaedia Britannica: Or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, 5th enlarged and improved edition, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed at the Encyclopædia...