suanpan

See also: suànpán

English

Alternative forms

• schwanpan, souanpan, suan-pan, swanpan, swan-pan

Etymology

From Mandarin 算盤／算盘 (suànpán).

Noun

suanpan (plural suanpans)

1. A Chinese abacus with two beads on each rod in the upper deck and five beads on each rod in the bottom deck.
   • 2014, Yoshihide Igarashi, Tom Altman, Mariko Funada, Barbara Kamiyama, Computing: A Historical and Technical Perspective‎^[1], page 64:

     The number of rods in the traditional suanpan is usually odd, and never less than nine.

   • 2016, Volker R. Remmert, Martina R. Schneider, Henrik Kragh Sørensen, editors, Historiography of Mathematics in the 19th and 20th Centuries‎^[2], page 19:

     Humboldt defended the idea that the Chinese suanpan (our abacus) might be at the origin of our number system.