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idempotent

idem·po·tent

US/ˌaɪ.dəmˈpoʊ.tənt/ uncommon

adjective

1.

unchanged in value following multiplication by itself

  • “this matrix is idempotent”
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Origin

From Latin roots idem (“same”) + potent (“having power”), thus “having the same power”. Coined in 1870 by American mathematician Benjamin Peirce in the context of algebra, later generalized to computer science.

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.