- Backstitution step
Backstitution
noun; clipping
A shortened version of backsubstitution, the mathematical process by which one manipulates matrices such that it is possible to solve for an unknown This word was actually formed accidentally, when the professor inadvertently misspelled back-substitution while writing on the board. He realized the error, but saw it as a funny, clever new word. Saying ‘backstitution’ rather than the full ‘back-substitution’ makes saying the name of the process (and lecturing about it) a little easier, because of the shortening.
Etymology : Clipping formed by eliminating the sub- prefix within backsubstitution, formed from back < Middle English bak < Old English baec, ‘back,’ + stitution from substitute < Latin substitutus, pp. of substitutere ‘to put instead of,’ from sub- ‘under’ + statuere, ‘to put, place’
Source : A Rice CAAM professor
Last modified: 10 June 2008