| Frankly, I've never seen a need for the names abscissa and
| ordinate.
| Moreover, I only remember them using the fact that I know
| they seem backward to me.
|
I can see two needs for the names, neither is compelling.
One mark of a well educated person is a wide knowledge base. The
"abscissa ordinate" terminology is not extinct and knowledge of what
those words are referring to is a useful bit of mathematical trivia.
John M. marks himself as a well educated person in part by knowing what
those words refer to and by having devised an algorithm for himself that
keeps that terminology straight. I have my own inane algorithm that
accomplishes the same purpose.
Related to the above, one comes across the terminology in references, so
to the extent that you want to read those references with a minimal
amount "dictionary time" there is a need for those names (or at least
knowledge of those names.)