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In case of binary operations, operands have formal names.

Taking addition for example: $$a + b$$ We can formally call $a$ the augend and $b$ the addend. Names for operands are available in individual Wikipedia articles, for addition it is here: Addition, as well as all-in-one in this page: Calculation results. Some of them are available as well in this question: What are the formal names of operands and results for basic operations?

But what I just cannot find anywhere is... Formal details regarding unary operations. My question is, do operands of unary operations have formal names? I suspect the answer is yes, but what are they?

Taking a list from Wikipedia Unary operation for C programming language for example:

  • Increment: ++x, x++
  • Decrement: −−x, x−−
  • Address: &x
  • Indirection: *x
  • Positive: +x
  • Negative: −x
  • Ones' complement: ~x
  • Logical negation: !x
  • Sizeof: sizeof x, sizeof(type-name)
  • Cast: (type-name) cast-expression

Disregarding the programming context, and considering only the operations met also in mathematics, does anyone know the names for operands in these? In case of $+1$, is $1$ the addend? In case of $-5$, is $5$ the subtrahend? What about incrementing, is the operand called... incremend?

mbdevpl
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  • Just say "operand". Why complicate things? – Mariano Suárez-Álvarez Jul 04 '16 at 03:10
  • @MarianoSuárez-Alvarez: Agreed. Still, OP would like to know the technical names. – MPW Jul 04 '16 at 03:53
  • My motivation is simply curiosity. Maybe someone invented or heard about some concrete names for those... I just want to know :) – mbdevpl Jul 04 '16 at 03:53
  • My suggestion: study Latin. That's where the names you mention come from anyway. On the other hand, they're just fancy-sounding names which just mean exactly what they are, and aren't more accurate than their English descriptions. – MPW Jul 04 '16 at 03:54

1 Answers1

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I would suggest neo-Latinisms as these terms do not exist historically.

"Addend" and "subtrahend" are definitely wrong, since these refer to quantities which are to be added or subtracted; I might suggest "signand" in both cases instead (for the unary sign operators).

One might similarly refer to "increscend" or "decrescend" for the argument of the ++ and -- operators. In any event, they are certainly "operands" in general.

MPW
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