[Ads-l] Antedating of "Physicist"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great work, Fred. Apparently, the article you found appeared in "The
London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science" in
September 1937. The accompanying note states that the article had been
reprinted from the "Bibliotheque Universelle" in June 1937. Was it
translated? I do not know. Also, the article had been delivered in
Geneva on December 15, 1836.

"physicists" occurs five times in the volume. Some of these instances
are in different articles.
https://books.google.com/books?id=YTlZAAAAcAAJ&q=+physicists#v=snippet&

"physicist" occurs once in the volume
https://books.google.com/books?id=YTlZAAAAcAAJ&q=%22and+physicist%22#v=snippet&

Date: September 1837
Periodical: The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and
Journal of Science
Volume 11

Article: XXXII. Papers on the alleged Periodical Meteors of the 13th
of November, and on Shooting Stars in general. By M. M. WARTMANN and
QUETELET

I. Notice respecting the Periodic Meteors of the 13th of November. By
M. L. F. WARTMANN

>From the Bibliotheque Universelle N. S. 2 de Ann. No. 18, June 1837:
having been read before the Society of Physics and Natural History of
Geneva, Dec. 15, 1836.

Start Page 261, Quote Page 262

[Begin excerpt]
The much-wished-for fall of one of these meteors would without doubt
furnish the chemist and physicist with the means of explaining certain
points quite unknown.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, May 28, 2020 at 4:18 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Who was the author?
>
> On Thu, May 28, 2020, 7:31 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > This is a noteworthy antedating, as the term antedated is one of the major
> > scientific neologisms of the 19th century and has been regarded as one of
> > the key contributions of the master neologist William Whewell:
> >
> > physicist (OED, 2., 1840)
> >
> > 1838 _Madras Journal of Literature and Science_ 1 Jan. 168 (19th Century
> > U.K. Periodicals)  The much-wished-for fall of one of these meteors would
> > without doubt furnish the chemist and physicist with the means of
> > explaining certain points quite unknown.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org