ABACUS

Abacus

The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool that was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The user of an abacus is called an abacist.

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abacus

Noun

  1. A table or tray strewn with sand, anciently used for drawing, calculating, etc. .
  2. A calculating table or frame; an instrument for performing arithmetical calculations by balls sliding on wires, or counters in grooves, the lowest line representing units, the second line, 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. <ref name=SOED/>
  4. A board, tray, or table, divided into perforated compartments, for holding cups, bottles, or the like; a kind of cupboard, buffet, or sideboard. <ref name=SOED/>


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: abacus
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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