ABSTRACT
The word 'numeracy' as a recent addition to the English language, is not yet weathered to smoothness through frequent use. The Oxford Dictionary definition is lean: 'ability with or knowledge of numbers'. The word, intended to parallel 'literacy', was coined in the late 1950s. C P Snow had articulated a concern that the humanities and the sciences were diverging into two cultures consisting of innumerate artists and illiterate scientists. He argued that 'illiterate' did not mean 'unable to read' nor did 'innumerate' mean 'unable to add', but the terms referred to a degree of deficiency that hindered communication between the two groups.
