行列

Noun

 * 1) row or column
 * 2) ranks; procession; rows

Etymology
From, in turn from. First attested in Japanese in 749.

The date of the mathematical sense is uncertain. Matrices for calculation were long known in Chinese mathematics, and were used to solve systems of linear equations in the work, compiled from the 10th through the 2nd centuries. The component terms and  are both used in that text, but not in the particular combination of  (see also Wikisource). The first Japanese work on this aspect of mathematics was a 1683 text by, but it is not yet clear if this text includes the term with the sense of.

Noun

 * 1)  a line or queue, a procession in single file
 * 2)  a ceremonial procession
 * 3)   a matrix
 * 1)   a matrix

Verb

 * 1)  to form a line, to proceed in single file