ABACUS

AB'ACUS, noun [Latin anything flat, as a cupboard, a bench, a slate, a table or board for games; Gr. Usually deduced from the Oriental, abak, dust, because the ancients used tables covered with dust for making figures and diagrams.]1. Among the Romans, a cupboard or buffet.2. An instrument to facilitate operations in arithmetic; on this are drawn lines; a counter on the lowest line, is one; on the next, ten; on the third, a hundred, _e. On the spaces, counters denote half the number of the line above. Other schemes are called by the same name. The name is also given to a table of numbers, cast up as an abacus of addition; and by analogy, to the art of numbering, as in Knighton's Chronicon.3. In architecture, a table constituting the upper member or crowning of a column and its capital. It is usually square, but sometimes its sides are arched inwards. The name is also given to a concave molding on the capital of the Tuscan pedestal; and to the plinth above the boultin in the Tuscan and Doric orders.AB'ACUS PYTHAGORICUS, The multiplication table, invented by Pythagoras.ABACUS HARMONICUS, The structure and disposition of the keys of a musical instrument.ABACUS MAJOR, A trough used in mines, to wash ore in.

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abacus. Abacus, n. an old kind of desk or table, the highest member of a column

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Ab″a‐cus (ăb″ȧ‐kŭs), n.; E. pl. Abacuses ; L. pl. Abaci (–sī). [[L. abacus, abax, Gr. ἄβαξ]] 1. 1. A table or tray strewn with sand, anciently used for drawing, calculating, etc.
2. 2. A calculating table or frame; an instrument for performing arithmetical calculations by balls sliding on wires, or counters in grooves, the lowest line representing units, the second line, tens, etc. It is still employed in China.
3. 3. (Arch.) (a) The uppermost member or division of the capital of a column, immediately under the architrave. See Column. (b) A tablet, panel, or compartment in ornamented or mosaic work.
4. 4. A board, tray, or table, divided into perforated compartments, for holding cups, bottles, or the like; a kind of cupboard, buffet, or sideboard.
Abacus harmonicus (Mus.), an ancient diagram showing the structure and disposition of the keys of an instrument. Crabb.