Antedating of "Googol" and "Googolplex"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The OED's first uses for "googol" and "googolplex" are dated 1940.  A JSTOR search, however, retrieves two 1938 citations for both words, from Science News-Letter, Feb. 12, 1938, p. 108; and Mathematical Gazette, May 1938, p. 215.  These 1938 articles make it clear that Edward Kasner used both words in an article entitled "New Names in Mathematics" in _Scripta Mathematica Forum Lectures_ (1937).

Fred Shapiro



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Fred R. Shapiro                                            Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and        YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                                           ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu
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