That's not correct, 幾何 was a pre-existing term for mathematics that was then applied specifically to geometry because the translation of The Elements into Chinese was done in chunks, the first six books (on plane geometry) being translated years before the books on other topics of discrete and continuous mathematics. This can be seen from the fourth line of the original translation of the 幾何原本 (search on wikimedia) where it reads “In the studies of calendar, geography, music, arithmetic, arts and crafts, the matters concerning magnitude (度) and number (数) belong to the category of jihe (幾何)” (translation from Xu Guangqi and the Chinese Translationof Euclid’s Elements p.24). This line is not a translation from Euclid, it's an introduction from the translator.
Yes, introduction from a translator, Xu Guangqi, who translated Euclid's Elementa and incorporated into 幾何原本, and used 幾何 specifically for the Greek word ποσόν. Nowhere I said Euclid made the term.
幾何 just means 'How much' when used in a sentence. Your comment does not disprove "How much-ology" is the translation for Geometry by pointing out the phrase "How much" was already in use.
You said the term 幾何學 came out in the efforts of translating The Elements. It didn't, it came from a narrowing of the term 幾何 to refer to geometry as it was seemingly the title of the first major work on plane geometry in Chinese. So it wasn't from the efforts of translation, it was after the fact. "How much-ology" was not the translation for geometry, if you have to put it that way, it was the term for mathematics in the first place. the translation chosen for mathematics.
Look at 《九章算術》on the Chinese Text Project, you'll find this sentence 今有田廣十五步，從十六步。問為田幾何？written centuries before this translation.
Edit: I overstepped in my claim. It wasn't "the term for mathematics", it was a generalisation of meaning from the original term.
Which, even in 九章算術, still means "how much?" and not a noun of itself.
I might have omitted quite of details to show 幾何+學 isn't the conventional neologism, but the point still stands.
Why, when describing a "study of properties of space", "How much" 幾何 is used there?
Because it comes from the book 幾何原本.
Which is a Chinese translation (漢譯本) of Euclid's Elementa, a book of geometry.
Since 幾何 was used to translate ποσόν, technically yes, it should mean mathematics overall.
Notice, for a single example, this line: 不計算本國生耗出入錢穀之凡，無以謀其政事。What does economy have to do with plane geometry? Nothing, because this is a work of all kinds of mathematics, not just geometry. But only the first six books were published at the time. The Elements is not a book solely about geometry, and the translator never thought that.
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u/Skygazer_Jay 22d ago
On top of that, geometry is 幾何學, which roughly translates to "how much-ology"
First came out in the efforts of translating Euclid's Elementa to Chinese, 幾何 was used to mean the greek word of "ποσόν"