"diffy Q" vs. "D.E." for "Differential Equations"

[Shannon Detchemendy]

The students I know refer to it and spell it as Diff EQ.  Neither I nor
any of my friends have heard it referred to as DE.





On Mon, Sep 04, 2000 at 04:39:02PM -0400, Fred Shapiro wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Sep 2000, Gerald Cohen wrote:
>
> >         A retired professor of Mathematics at my campus tells me he is
> > familiar with the colloquial  "Diffy Q" (for "Differential Equations") only
> > from our campus (University of Missouri-Rolla).  Elsewhere he has heard the
> > reference only as "D.E."
> > He has been retired for ten years.
> >
> >         I told him I would ask ADS-L about this.  Can anyone help?  Is
> > anyone familiar with "Diffy Q" at other universities?
>
> I think this is probably widespread.  I remember it being used at MIT in
> the 1970s.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu