MANTISSA


Meaning of MANTISSA in English

/man tis"euh/ , n.

1. Math. the decimal part of a common logarithm. Cf. characteristic (def. 3a).

2. Obs. an addition of little or no importance, as to a literary work.

[ 1860-65; mantisa addition, makeweight, said to be from Etruscan; logarithmic mantissa so called because it is additional to the characteristic or integral part (term introduced by H. Briggs) ]

Random House Webster's Unabridged English dictionary.      Полный английский словарь Вебстер - Random House .