Antedating of "Agnostic"

[Fred Shapiro]

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.

Fred Shapiro


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