E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Whetstone of Witte (The)
(1556), by Robert Recorde, a treatise on algebra. The old name for algebra was the “Cossic Art,” and Cos Ingenii rendered into English is “the Whetstone of Wit.” It will be remembered that the maid told the belated traveller in the Fortunes of Nigel that her master had “no other books but her young mistress’s Bible … . and her master’s Whestone of Witte, by Robert Recorde.”
