# Is there a verb form for 'square root?' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733 "2007-11-16T18:37:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/21 "2007-11-21T00:35:20Z")
_Unsquare_ would be ok. It kind of implies the existance of two roots. If you unsquare 4 you could get 2 or -2. Whether that is what we want is another important question. IOW, if we are going to coin a new term, would it be preferable to have it refer only to the positive solution, both solutions, complex solutions, or leave it ambiguous the same as “take the square root of”? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/22 "2007-11-21T01:55:35Z")
[QUOTE=j\_sum1] _Unsquare_ would be ok. It kind of implies the existance of two roots. If you unsquare 4 you could get 2 or -2. Whether that is what we want is another important question. IOW, if we are going to coin a new term, would it be preferable to have it refer only to the positive solution, both solutions, complex solutions, or leave it ambiguous the same as “take the square root of”? [/QUOTE] By convention, the nth root of a complex number z is the principal branch of z[sup]1/n[/sup]. In the case of the square root of a positive real, it refers to the positive value. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/23 "2007-11-21T02:10:41Z")
When did they stop extracting roots? ``` Tris ``` ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/24 "2007-11-21T14:59:03Z")
[QUOTE=ultrafilter] By convention, the nth root of a complex number z is the principal branch of z[sup]1/n[/sup]. In the case of the square root of a positive real, it refers to the positive value. [/QUOTE] Yeah I know. (Although you always express these things so precisely.) The point is, if we are coining a new verb, then it might be a good time to make sure it means exactly what we want it to mean. I like “unsquare”, but it seems ambiguous to me. Maybe that’s a good thing to have?? Hence the question. ---
**Author:** ![EnginNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@EnginNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnginNerd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/25 "2007-11-21T23:56:31Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] If there is such an animal, my money is on it being German or Japanese - in the former, they just glue separate words together to make new ones - in the latter, they import phrases as words. [/QUOTE] You’d be correct… At least in Japanese, I’d say 開平する (kahei suru), which would translate roughly as “do square root.” ---
**Author:** ![IOMDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/91b2a8/32.png) [@IOMDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IOMDave)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/26 "2007-11-22T00:41:23Z")
Creating maths words is fun. I too, like “squirt”. Another one I use is “ensmallment” as a short way of saying “enlargement with a fractional scale factor”. It’s funny and it sticks in your head. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/27 "2007-11-22T14:59:17Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] If there is such an animal, my money is on it being German or Japanese - in the former, they just glue separate words together to make new ones - in the latter, they import phrases as words. [/QUOTE] In German it’s not a single-word verb either - it’s a phrasal verb: **die Wurzel ziehen** (literally, to pull the root) **Ich ziehe die Quadratwurzel aus x** - I calculate the square root of x **Ich ziehe die _n_-te Wurzel aus x** - I calculate the _n_-th root of x (e.g. _n_=3 for cubic root) ---
**Author:** ![4.66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/2bfe46/32.png) [@4.66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4.66)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733/28 "2007-11-22T20:03:18Z")
In Dutch the operation is known as ‘worteltrekken’ which, like the German prhase, translates to ‘pulling roots’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-verb-form-for-square-root/426733.md?page=1)