substraction

English

Etymology

From Middle French substraction (compare modern French soustraction), from Old French substraction, from Medieval Latin substractio, derived from Late Latin substractus. Ultimately from Latin subtraho (“to pull out from under; to remove, to subtract”).

The use by non-native speakers arises by analogy with words such as French soustraction and Spanish sustracción.

Noun

substraction (countable and uncountable, plural substractions)

1. (obsolete or non-native speakers' English) Subtraction.
   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC:

     The plasterer doth make his figures by addition, and the carver by substraction.

   • 1999, A. Quinquis, C. Ioana, H. Thomas, “Noise substraction for improving the localisation of an underwater mobile”, in Oceans '99: Riding the Crest into the 21st Century. IEEE Conference Proceedings:

     [in title]

Anagrams

• obscurantist, subtractions