GLOSSARY OF COMMON MATH TERMS

Phrase	Meaning
This is trivial.	I forget the proof.
This is obvious.	You forget the proof.
This is a calculation.	Let’s all forget the proof.
Clearly ...	Obscurely ...
Send me your preprints.	Please go away.
Send me your reprints.	Please stay away.
I’ll send you some of my papers.	Drop dead.
Look it up in Dunford and Schwartz.	In your face.
Go ask Professor Smith over there.	In his face.
Let’s make an appointment and talk about it.	In my face.
Read my book.	I don’t know.
That problem is intractable.	I can’t do the problem so neither can you.
I thought about that question twenty years ago, but I forget the answer.	I’m more famous than you are.
That’s the most insightful question I ever heard. Let me think about it.	You’re more famous than I am.
Let’s write a joint paper on that.	We’re equally famous but I’m lazy.
He’s one of the great living mathematicians.	He’s written five papers and I’ve read two of them.
He’s one of the four greatest mathematicians.	I don’t know anything about his mathematics, but this is what André Weil said.
What are some applications of you theorem?	What is your theorem?
Didn’t Jones do some similar stuff a few years ago?	I know where you copied.
I don’t understand that step.	You goofed.
How do you reconcile your theorem with this example?	You’re dead.
Your theorem contradicts my theorem.	I’m dead.
I’ve heard so much about you.	Stalling a minute may give me time to recall who you are.
Who was you advisor?	What rock did you crawl out from under?
What was your thesis about?	Are you still polishing your thesis?
Where do you teach?	Do you have a job?
Your talk was very interesting.	I can’t think anything to say about your talk.
Have you had many students?	Do you have any social diseases?
I read one of your papers.	I wrapped fish with one of your papers.

Fonte: KRANTZ, Steven G. The Mathematical Intelligence, 1994, 16(1): 36.

Digitação para a Internet: Alexandre Amorim Rocha.