Comment 18 by ConnedCatholic

Comment 15 by Rawhard Dickins - What on earth is wrong with the word "science"? I read the other day somewhere that it only became an english word sometime in the middle of the 19th century. I think that it is a great word. We are in real trouble if we have to subsitute it because of political correctedness.

I'm guilty of that comment I'm afraid and it was reference the word 'scientist.' People who involved themselves in the sciences were known by subject specific description. Natural philosopher for example.

Forms of science historically developed out of philosophy or, more specifically, natural philosophy. At older universities, long-established Chairs of Natural Philosophy are nowadays occupied mainly by physics professors. Modern notions of science and scientists date only to the 19th century (the Oxford English Dictionary dates the origin of the word "scientist" to 1834). Before then, the word "science" simply meant knowledge and the label of scientist did not exist. Some examples of the term's usage Isaac Newton's 1687 scientific treatise is known as The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and Lord Kelvin and Peter Guthrie Tait's 1867 treatise that helped define much of modern physics Treatise on Natural Philosophy.