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What is the etymology of the word プラスアルファ(+α)?

This is a neologism I believe, however I hear it quite often nowadays. I'm
curious to what the origin would be?
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2012-07-10T22:40:32.747
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2012-07-13T18:42:28.950
2012-07-10T22:58:11.973
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etymology
What is the etymology of the word プラスアルファ?
> What is the etymology of the word プラスアルファー

It is usually プラスアルファ, without a long vowel at the end.

It is a compound of two word: プラス + アルファ. プラス is from English "plus". アルファ is
thought to have represented a variable x but it was mistakenly identified /
read as Greek α and hence アルファ. The intent was "+ x (=something)".
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2012-07-10T22:56:11.413
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I asked this same question to my Japanese co-worker the other day and he told
me the following reason (although, I'm not entirely convinced)

During baseball in Japan they used to write an X in the 9th inning score box
if the team had already won in the 8th inning. This was often written in a
shorthand way (1 stroke) which resulted in the X looking like an alpha. From
the idea of having done so much more than was needed that they didn't even
keep score in the 9th inning - came the associated meaning of doing more than
is expected. Just like a baseball team can "プラスアルファ" their score, so can a
person "プラスアルファ" an action.

(I'm afraid I have no idea about baseball, so this might not be totally
cogent)
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