quantic

From Latin quantus (“how much”).

quantic (plural quantics)

1. (mathematics) A homogeneous polynomial in two or more variables.
   • 1858, Arthur Cayley, “A Fourth Memoir on Quantics”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 148, published 1859, page 421:

     When the two quantics are the first derived functions of the same quantic of any odd order, the lineo-linear invariant does not vanish, but it is not an invariant of the single quantic.

   • 1859, George Salmon, Modern Higher Algebra, page 52:

     74. The discriminant of a binary quantic, or the eliminant of a system of binary quantics, is an invariant.
     We can see a priori that this must be the case, for if a given quantic has a square factor, it will have a square factor still when it is linearly transformed; or if a system of quantics have a common factor, they will still have a common factor when the equations are transformed.

• “quantic”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.