Antedating of "Agnostic"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/1/06, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Jan 2006, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
> > Both "agnostic" and "agnosticism" are in "The Scientific Basis of
> > Belief" by Robert H. Thurston, _North American Review_, Aug. 1861.
>
> No, that's much too early for these words to have appeared.  Your source,
> which I assume is Making of America, misdates this article.  The article
> is actually dated 1891.

Right you are. That's surprising-- MoA is usually quite reliable with
its dating of articles.


--Ben Zimmer