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minuend (MIN-yoo-end) - n., the number from which another is to be subtracted.
Compare dividend, the number from which another is to be divided. The parallel breaks down there, however, as the number being subtracted is not the subtractor but the subtrahend -- go fig. Not something we need in daily life, but before equations were fully developed and all mathematics had to be verbalized, it was an important word. From Latin Latin minuendus (numerus), (the number) to be diminished, from minus, less.
---L.
Compare dividend, the number from which another is to be divided. The parallel breaks down there, however, as the number being subtracted is not the subtractor but the subtrahend -- go fig. Not something we need in daily life, but before equations were fully developed and all mathematics had to be verbalized, it was an important word. From Latin Latin minuendus (numerus), (the number) to be diminished, from minus, less.
---L.
