"abstract nonsense" meaning in All languages combined

See abstract nonsense on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-abstract nonsense.wav
Etymology: Coined by Norman Steenrod, popularized by Serge Lang. Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} abstract nonsense (uncountable)
  1. (mathematics, humorous) Details which are straightforward but so tedious that an author or lecturer would rather skip them (especially those of a category theoretical nature). Tags: humorous, uncountable
    Sense id: en-abstract_nonsense-en-noun-Z7JFRFZM Categories (other): Mathematics Topics: mathematics, sciences
  2. (mathematics, humorous) Details which involve diagram chasing. Tags: humorous, uncountable Coordinate_terms (skipped details): handwave
    Sense id: en-abstract_nonsense-en-noun-Tf~p6IYq Categories (other): Mathematics, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Logic Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 7 52 41 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 3 55 41 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 57 40 Disambiguation of Logic: 32 43 25 Topics: mathematics, sciences Disambiguation of 'skipped details': 39 56 5
  3. (mathematics, humorous) Category theory in general. Tags: humorous, uncountable
    Sense id: en-abstract_nonsense-en-noun-FgNwije3 Categories (other): Mathematics, Entries with translation boxes, Category theory Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 5 34 61 Disambiguation of Category theory: 10 23 67 Topics: mathematics, sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: diagram chasing
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-01 using wiktextract (c3cc510 and 1d3fdbf). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.