[Haskell-cafe] Category Theory woes

[Hans Aberg]

On 19 Feb 2010, at 00:55, Daniel Fischer wrote:

>> I'd always assumed "ring" was generalised from Z[n].
>
> As in "cyclic group", arrange the numbers in a ring like on a  
> clockface?
> Maybe. As far as I know, the term "ring" (in the mathematical sense)  
> first
> appears in chapter 9 - Die Zahlringe des Körpers - of Hilbert's "Die
> Theorie der algebraischen Zahlkörper". Unfortunately, Hilbert gives  
> no hint
> why he chose that name (Dedekind, who coined the term "Körper", called
> these structures "Ordnung" [order]).

The Wikipedia article "Ring" says he used it for a specific one where  
the elements somehow cycled back.

   Hans