The word "algebra" comes from a phrase (in bold below) in the title of an Arab book " Kitab al muhtasar fi hisab al gabr w'al muqubalah ." ... When Al-Khorezmi's book on the new system reached Europe, the Europeans called its use "algorism" or "algorithm," a corruption of the author's name. Today "algorithm" means method of calculation, and the rise of computers has led to extensive work on developing efficient computer algorithms. ...