[Haskell-cafe] Category Theory woes

[Daniel Fischer]

Am Freitag 19 Februar 2010 00:24:23 schrieb Richard O'Keefe:
> On Feb 19, 2010, at 3:55 AM, Daniel Fischer wrote:
> > Am Donnerstag 18 Februar 2010 14:48:08 schrieb Nick Rudnick:
> >> even in Germany, where the
> >> term «ring» seems to originate from, since at least a century nowbody
> >> has the least idea it once had an alternative meaning
> >> «gang,band,group»,
> >
> > Wrong. The term "Ring" is still in use with that meaning in
> > composites like
> > Schmugglerring, Autoschieberring, ...
>
> The mathematical ring is OED ring n1 sense 12.
> The group of people sense is sense 11, immediately above it.
> "Drug ring" is still in use.
> I'd always assumed "ring" was generalised from Z[n].

As in "cyclic group", arrange the numbers in a ring like on a clockface?
Maybe. As far as I know, the term "ring" (in the mathematical sense) first 
appears in chapter 9 - Die Zahlringe des Körpers - of Hilbert's "Die 
Theorie der algebraischen Zahlkörper". Unfortunately, Hilbert gives no hint 
why he chose that name (Dedekind, who coined the term "Körper", called 
these structures "Ordnung" [order]).