“几何”,在我国文言文中原是“多少”的意思。 意大利教士利玛窦(Matteo Ricci,1552—1610)和我国明末科学家徐光启(1562—1633)在1607年合译的《几何原本》中,首先把它作为一个数学专有名词的译名,并被沿同下来,成为现在数学分支的名称。甚至被日本等国所接受。 利玛窦和徐光启为什么采用“几何”这个译名, “Geometry” is the meaning of “how many” in Chinese classical Chinese. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the Italian clergyman, and Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), a scientist in the late Ming dynasty, first translated it into a mathematical proper nouns Along the same line, become the name of the current branch of mathematics. Even Japan and other countries accepted. Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi why use the “geometry” of the translation,