Re: for the classics profs

From: Edward L. Pothier (POTHIER@neu.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 22 1998 - 13:42:27 EST


Tony Prete <tonyp@waterw.com>wrote:
>At 01:18 PM 1/22/98 +1030, you wrote:
>>This isn't exactly a b-greek question so please forgive me...
>>
>>At the end of solutions to problems or theorem proofs, the letters QED
>>are often used to state that enough information has been presented to
>>justify the conclusion.
>>
>>I believe the letters are a Latin acronym. What do they actually mean?
>
>Quod Erat Demonstrandum, (That Which Was To Have Been Shown [Proven,
>Demonstrated, etc.]), or, more colloquially, This is what I set out to prove.
-------------- end quoted material

       Tony's response verifies the original poster's hypothesis that
the QED (or Q.E.D.) is Latin, which is at least related to Biblical
Greek as a "classical" language. However, going farther away from
Biblical Greek to English, you get the flippant "translation"
(occasionally popular to us math and science types who are ignorant of
languages) of QED as "Quite Enough Done".

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