The word comes from the Greek ?????????? (math?matik?)and means "concerning learning".
The following explanation is told about its coming into use: Pythagoras of Samos founded a school of mysticism around 6th century B.C., believing numbers to be the basic essence from which the universe is built. A central pillar of his teaching was the belief that all numbers be composed as rational numbers, i.e. as one integer divided by another (like 1/2, 5/2, 12/17).
One disciple (Hippasos) found evidence for the existence of non-rational numbers (like the square root of two), which profoundly shook the followers, separating them into two factions: Those who listen (obey), the akusmaticoi and those who learn, the mathematcoi.
While this story is compelling, due to the extreme secrecy of the Pythagorean order it cannot be established with certainty that the word mathematics really came into use in that way.
