ABACUS,the Latin word for counting board,is derived from the Hebrew adap[dust]though its Greek from abakos.The primitive abacus was a board covered with dust or sand on which figures could be treced and then erased.Calculating with Roman numerals was difficult;so the Romans used a table with parallel vertical lines representing units,then,hundreds,etc.On these lines were placed pebbles called calculi from which we get CALCULATE and CALCULUS.Later,when Arabic numerals become common,the abacus was no longer necessary.To the Chinese,however,the abacus remains an indispensable graphic tool--a picture is worth a thousand word's
ABACUS 算盘在拉丁语中指计数板，是由希伯来语ADAQ尘土一词的希腊文形式ABAKOS派生出来的。原始的算盘是一块上面盖满尘土或沙土的板，可以在上面写上数字，然后涂掉。用罗马数字计算很困难，于是罗马人就在桌子上划若干条平行竖线，以表示个位、十位、百位等数学单位，并在这些线上摆上小石子，这些石子叫calculi由此我们有了现在的CALCULATE计算以及CACULUS演算这两个词。后来阿拉伯数字普及了，也就不再需要算盘了。然而，对于中国人来说，算盘仍是一种不可缺少的图解计算工具。也就是说“千言万语不如图画一张”