Etymology From Latin numerātus, perfect past participle of numerō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix, of participial origin)). By surface analysis, Latin numerus + -ate.
Etymology From Latin numerus + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), by analogy with literate. Coined with numeracy in 1959 by the UK Committee on Education, presided over by Sir Geoffrey Crowther.
1
Having numeracy.
In these days when the age of pulse was giving way to the age of tone. When the epoch of analogue (which was to say also of the richness of language, of analogy) was giving way to the digital era, the final victory of the numerate over the literate.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 8:
Etymology From Middle English numerat, numerate, from Latin numerātus, perfect past participle of numerō (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix, of participial origin)).
Which Ratification foresaid is granted by Laurence Lord Oliphant and his Foresaids upon the saids Earle’s paying in numerate Money to the said Lord at the Date thereof the Sum of Twenty Nine Thousand Seven Hunder and 24 Mercks Scots […]1623 (compiled 1750–1751), “Genealogy of the Oliphants”, in James Toshach Clark, editor, compiled by Walter MacFarlane, Genealogical Collections Concerning Families in Scotland, […] (Publications of the Scottish History Society; 34), volume II, Edinburgh: […] [A]t the University Press by T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for the Scottish History Society, published 1900, →OCLC, page 114:
Now if the Monads are equall in number to all numerate things, of which the word One is prædicated, by participation of which Monads every particular is ſaid to be one, there will be infinite Monads thus participated.1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[Of Physick.] Chap[ter] XVIII. Of Number.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 4th part (Containing the Sceptick Sect), pages 88–89:
1 more example
Whereas Patrick Hepburn of Kingſton, in the county of Haddington, hath advanced to us, by the hands of Col. Lauchlan Maclauchlan of that Ilk, the ſum of 740 l. Sterling, in numerate money of Britain; […]1745 October 28 (Gregorian calendar), Charles Prince of Wales [i.e., Charles Edward Stuart], “A Plea betwixt Kingston and Maclauchlan”, in The Scots Magazine, volume XIV, Edinburgh: W[illiam] Sands, A[lexander] Murray, and J[ames] Cochran, published April 1752, →OCLC, page 187, column 1: