Word.ws English Dictionary

cossist

cossist noun: a practitioner of proto-algebra in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.

Noun

cossist (plural cossists)

  1. (historical) A practitioner of proto-algebra in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.
    • The word "cossist" comes from the Italian cosa, meaning "thing." The cosa was the mystery that algebra was designed to solve -- it was the name given to the unknown quantity in an equation (our modern x).2005, Amir D. Aczel, Descartes' Secret Notebook: A True Tale of Mathematics, page 121
    • So also were trained the Cossists and Rechenmeister of Germany in his tradition.2014, L. E. Sigler, Leonardo Pisano (Fibonacci): The Book of Squares, page xvii

Adjective

cossist (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to the cossists and their methods; cossic.
    • Clavius's treatise is, first of all, reckoned as one of the textbooks of cossist algebra.1989, Chikara Sasaki, Descartes's Mathematical Thought, page 90
    • Cossist algebra constituted essentially a sophisticated form of arithmetical problem-solving. Often it is difficult when reading a cossist text to discern where computational arithmetic leaves off and algebra begins.2018, Michael Sean Mahoney, The Mathematical Career of Pierre de Fermat, 1601-1665), page 5

Forms of cossist

pluralcossists

Origin of cossist

From Italian cossista, from the word cosa (“thing”), in reference to an unknown quantity to be determined + -ista. See rule of coss.

Questions about cossist

What does cossist mean?
Cossist means a practitioner of proto-algebra in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.
What part of speech is cossist?
Cossist can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of cossist?
The plural of cossist is cossists.

Words near cossist in the dictionary

  1. Cossimbazar
  2. Cossin
  3. Cossington
  4. Cossins
  5. Cossio
  6. cossist
  7. cossists
  8. Cossumbazar
  9. Cossya
  10. Cossyah
  11. Cossyahs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cossist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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