Why don’t we use obelus?

I will now!!!

i used to say “goes into” as in, 4 goes into 8, 2 times.
We jokingly called it “gazinta” . Similar to “Gesundheit”.

I like it- it’s twice as concise as divided by.

However, I think the math community is obelus the semantic conflict. ;)

Obelus also means a printer’s dagger, indicating death.

And this conversation should die to stop the confusion and the division of understanding! Better to use a virgule!

Here it is:
+, plus
-, minus
x, mal
÷, durch

Plus
Min
Maal
Gedeeld door.

Asterix and Obelus

I’d say it’s because obelus is the name of a symbol, like virgule and octothorpe and pilcrow. It’s a noun. In their use in arithmetic notation, plus and minus and times are construed as prepositions. Divided by is an adjective (past participle of the verb) plus a preposition.

So far in our present-day mangling of English, we routinely and callously use verbs as nouns (“an invite”), but we aren’t yet using nouns as prepositions. (Or if we are, someone will let me know—gently, please.)

You could argue that in the first three operations the name of the symbol has been co-opted as the name of the operation ; but in fact we refer to the + as a plus sign and not just a plus, so the distinction is still being made.

An alternative expression for division is “over,” or used to be: “ten over two is five.” That’s the parallel term, in my opinion.

@LuckyGuy, in my lexicon it’s gozinta. Must be a regional thing.

@Jeruba I grew up on Long Island. That could explain it.

I’m busy looking up virgule, octothorpe, and pilcrow now.
Should it be called a novethorpe since there are 9 spaces, not 8?

@LuckyGuy, if thoughtfully deployed, octothorpe can be a conversation stopper, especially among editors, who don’t like to be beaten in a display of knowledge of publications-related terminology.

Curious how many names that symbol has. Here’s an interesting discourse on its origins. Of the nineteen names listed in that article, I knew only eight. When I was growing up, it was just “number sign,” as in “You’re in group #2.”

I’ve wondered the same thing about the nine spaces.

@Jeruba Thank you for that article! It even addressed my octo vs novem question!
Apparently I see the spaces not the legs.
I, too, called it number sign.

Real discussion of obelus rather than virgule could be described as irrational.