Symbo First author

Name Date of earliest use

l to use

1360 (approx.), abbreviation

Indian
+ plus sign for Latin et resembling the
plus sign
Mathematician

1489 (first appearance of

minus sign, and also first Johannes
− minus sign
appearance of plus sign in Widmann
print)

1525 (without
√ radical symbol (for square root) the vinculum above
the radicand)
Christoff Rudolff

1544 (in handwritten notes) Michael Stifel

parentheses (for precedence
(...) grouping)
1556 Niccolò Tartaglia

= equals sign 1557 Robert Recorde

Christopher
. decimal separator 1593
Clavius

× multiplication sign 1618

William
± plus–minus sign
Oughtred
1628

∷ proportion sign

n
√ radical symbol (for nth root) 1629 Albert Girard
 
Symbo First author
Name Date of earliest use
l to use

< strict inequality signs (less-than

1631 Thomas Harriot
sign and greater-than sign)
>

1636 (using Roman
James Hume
numerals as superscripts)
xy superscript notation
(for exponentiation)
  René
1637 (in the modern form) Descartes (La
Géométrie)

Use of the letter x for

x an independent variable or unknown
1637[1]
René
Descartes (La
value. See History of algebra: The
  symbol x.
Géométrie)

1637 (with René

√̅ radical symbol (for square root) the vinculum above
the radicand)
Descartes (La
Géométrie)

% percent sign 1650 (approx.) unknown

∞ infinity sign 1655 John Wallis

division sign (a
÷ repurposed obelus variant)
1659 Johann Rahn

1670 (with the horizontal bar

over the inequality sign, John Wallis
≤ unstrict inequality signs (less-than or
rather than below it)
equals to sign and greater-than or
equals to sign)
≥ 1734 (with double horizontal
bar below the inequality Pierre Bouguer
sign)
Symbo First author
Name Date of earliest use
l to use

d differential sign

1675

∫ integral sign

1684 (deriving from use of Gottfried Leibniz

: colon (for division) colon to denote fractions,
dating back to 1633)

1698 (perhaps deriving from

a much earlier use of middle
· middle dot (for multiplication)
dot to separate juxtaposed
numbers)

1718 (deriving from

horizontal fraction bar,
⁄ division slash (a.k.a. solidus)
invented by Arabs in the
Thomas Twining
12th century)

≠ inequality sign (not equal to) unknown

x′ prime symbol (for derivative) 1748 Leonhard Euler

∑ summation symbol 1755

William
∝ proportionality sign 1768
Emerson

partial differential sign (a.k.a. curly Marquis de

∂ d or Jacobi's delta)
1770
Condorcet

identity sign (for congruence 1801 (first appearance in Carl Friedrich

≡ relation) print; used previously in
Symbo First author
Name Date of earliest use
l to use

personal writings of Gauss)

Gauss

[x] integral part (a.k.a. floor) 1808

! factorial 1808 Christian Kramp

Carl Friedrich
∏ product symbol 1812
Gauss

Joseph
1817
⊂ set inclusion signs (subset
Gergonne
of, superset of)
⊃
1890 Ernst Schröder

absolute value notation 1841 Karl Weierstrass

|...|
determinant of a matrix 1841

Arthur Cayley

‖...‖ matrix notation 1843[2]

1846 (previously used by

William Rowan
∇ nabla symbol (for vector differential) Hamilton as a general-
purpose operator sign)
Hamilton

∩ intersection
1888 Giuseppe Peano
∪ union

aleph symbol (for transfinite cardinal

ℵ numbers)
1893 Georg Cantor
Symbo First author
Name Date of earliest use
l to use

∈ membership sign (is an element of) 1894 Giuseppe Peano

O Big O Notation 1894 Paul Bachmann

braces, a.k.a. curly
{...} brackets (for set notation)
1895 Georg Cantor

Blackboard bold capital N
ℕ (for natural numbers set)

1895

Blackboard bold capital Q
ℚ (for rational numbers set)
Giuseppe Peano

∃ existential quantifier (there exists) 1897

· middle dot (for dot product)

1902 J. Willard Gibbs

× multiplication sign (for cross product)

∨ logical disjunction (a.k.a. OR) 1906 Bertrand Russell

(...) 1909[2] Maxime Bôcher

matrix notation
[...] 1909[2]
Gerhard
Kowalewski
 
Symbo First author
Name Date of earliest use
l to use

Arnold
∮ contour integral sign 1917
Sommerfeld

Blackboard bold capital Z
ℤ (for integer numbers set)
1930 Edmund Landau

Gerhard
∀ universal quantifier (for all) 1935
Gentzen

1936 (to denote images of

Øystein Ore
specific elements)

→ arrow (for function notation)
1940 (in the present form
Witold Hurewicz
of f: X → Y)

André
∅ empty set sign 1939 Weil / Nicolas
Bourbaki[3]

Blackboard bold capital C Nathan

ℂ (for complex numbers set)
1939
Jacobson

∎ end of proof sign (a.k.a. tombstone) 1950[4] Paul Halmos

⌊x⌋ greatest integer ≤ x (a.k.a. floor)

1962[5]
Kenneth E.
Iverson
⌈x⌉ smallest integer ≥ x (a.k.a. ceiling)