12 Comments

1. 

   Yeah, the trip from “mother” to the mathematical term was a rather twisty road.

2. 

   Okay, “I’ve got it”. Later I could provide reference works excerpts if you like.

3. 

   Well, not really mother-handling. More like breeding animal handling.

4. 

   I do not understand why this needed to be turned into a “Where’s Waldo” puzzle assignment. As dvandom pointed out @1, the path from “mother” to “matrix” may be non-intuitive, but the latter term was openly revealed in the caption, and finding the path backwards from there is (at least comparatively) easy.

   P.S. Similar strategies are frequently very useful for college math and physics assignments, for which the answer is often known. Work down from the top, and upwards from the known answer, until the gap between the two sequences is small enough to become trivial.

5. 

   Woaah! Is your grouch directed against the CIDU post, or the SMBC original?

   Anyway, FWIW, as promised here is much of the https://www.etymonline.com/word/matrix entry:

   `matrix (n.)
   late 14c., matris, matrice, “uterus, womb,” from Old French matrice “womb, uterus” and directly from Latin mātrix (genitive mātricis) “pregnant animal,” in Late Latin “womb,” also “source, origin,” from māter (genitive mātris) “mother” (see mother (n.1)).

   The many figurative and technical senses are from the notion of “that which encloses or gives origin to” something. The general sense of “place or medium where something is developed” is recorded by 1550s; meaning “mould in which something is cast or shaped” is by 1620s; sense of “embedding or enclosing mass” is by 1640s.

   The mathematical sense of “a rectangular array of quantities (usually square)” is because it is considered as a set of components into which quantities can be set. The logical sense of “array of possible combinations of truth-values” is attested by 1914. As a verb, in television broadcasting, from 1951.

6. 

   While we’re at it, here is some of https://www.etymonline.com/word/manipulation

   manipulation (n.)
   by 1730, a method of digging ore, from French manipulation, from manipule “handful” (a pharmacists’ measure), from Latin manipulus “handful, sheaf, bundle,” from manus “hand” (from PIE root *man– (2) “hand”) + root of plere “to fill” (from PIE root *pele– (1) “to fill”). Sense of “skillful handling of objects” is attested by 1826; extended 1828 to “handling or managing of persons,” especially to one’s own advantage.

   Also they have a graphic:

   

7. 

   What is the actual name or URL of the “solve SMBC” site, set up analagously to the “explain XKCD” one?

8. 

   Deety, I’m not aware of such a thing. Are you just thinking there must be a page like that, or is it something you remember visiting and you just need to locate it?

9. 

   
   There is, and I found it last week; looked just now, no luck. I know that sounds stupid!
   

10. 

    Since only four patrons understood it, the “answer” obviously had to be at least a step beyond synonyming matrix manipulation, but I only got a tentative half-step to dominatrix manipulation. I chickened out having a think or doing a search on that even though it seemed an SMBCesque path.

11. 

    Maybe someone can check back to the on-page SMBC comments and bring back here if there were substantial new ideas there. (Or even go to Patreon?)

    Personally I’m satisfied that the basic etymology, as explored by a couple of our commenters here, probably covers what was intended.

12. 

    The process of making vinyl or shellac records involves both a matrix and a mother, which are two closely related but very different things.