Word of the Day for Thursday, December 29, 2011
interpolation \in-tur-puh-LEY-shuhn\, noun:
1. The act or process of introducing something additional or extraneous between other parts.
2. Something interpolated, as a passage introduced into a text.
3. Mathematics. A. The process of determining the value of a function between two points at which it has prescribed values. B. A similar process using more than two points at which the function has prescribed values. C. The process of approximating a given function by using its values at a discrete set of points.
When men interpolate, it is because they believe their interpolation seriously needed.
-- Thomas Paine, "The Age of Reason"
"I am inclined to think," he added after a moment, once he had their attention again, "that if some pages were interpolated it was either done around the time of the original edition, or now, in our time.
-- Arturo Pérez-Reverte, "The Dumas Club"
Interpolation is derived from the Latin word interpolātus, meaning “to refurbish or touch up.”
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