Seeking Grammar Police Ruling - Math's

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister"
<gbannister10 at ...> wrote:
>
> ---  Lee Kaiwen <leekaiwen@> wrote:
> 
> Geoff:
> > there are a number of words in US English which jar with me
> > as a native UK English speaker and one at the top of my list
> > /is/ Math instead of Maths.
>  
> CJ:
> > :-) I feel the same way about "maths". It ain't plural, why
> > stick an "s" on it?
> 
> Geoff:
> Because the basic word has an s at the end and ain't a plural.
> :-)
> 
> Also, I grew up with Maths and it feels right. Math just 
> doesn't sound right. But I expect that your feeling will be 
> the mirror image of mine.
>


bboyminn:

Oddly, once again, my American Heritage dictionary shows

math
math.
math's

but no 'maths'. Though I suspect if I had an Oxford Dictionary
things would be different. 


So, exactly what is 'maths', is it a plural where 'maths'
refers to a combination of algebra, trigonometry, geometry,
and calculus. Algebra being a single 'math' and all of them 
collectively being many 'maths'? 

It would seem that the word 'math' already collectively
refers to all the sub-branches of this particular science, so
the addition of an 's' is redundant. 

In a sense, by saying 'maths' you are really saying -

'mathematicSS' (two 's's are intentional)

Now if you were to say "math's" I could be somewhat sympathetic.
(He said with a wry smile.)

Steve/bboyminn