- On this see Porter Roy The making of geology: earth science in Britain, 1660–1815 Cambridge 1977 Besides the Oxford English dictionary (‘G’ volume, 1897–1900), there are three partial discussions by Frank Dawson Adams: ‘Earliest use of the term Geology’, Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 43 (1932), 121–123: ‘Further note on the earliest use of the word “Geology”’, Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 44 (1933), 821–826; and in his book The birth and development of the geological sciences (1954, New York), 165–166. I utilize both the OED and Adams freely, silently correcting errors, but I remain greatly in their debt. By way of illustration, the earliest example that I myself have found dates only from 1709.
- de Bury , Richard . Philobiblon (written 1344: published 1473, Cologne; many subsequent editions). fol. 33r.
- Adams . 1933 . The birth and development of the geological sciences 825 – 825 . New York
- Lovell , Robert . 1661 . ΠANZΩOPYKTOΛOΓIA, sive panzoologicomineralogia. Or a compleat history of animals and minerals Oxford The Pammineralogicon has a separate title page and pagination, within which ‘Geologia’ is on page 1.
- Michael Peterson , Escholt . 1663 . Geologia Norvegica London trans. Daniel Collins According to a modern facsimile (1963, Trondheim), ‘In the Norwegian edition of 1657, the world [sic] geology in its present sense, was used in print for the first time’.
- Plot , Robert . 1686 . Natural history of Stafford-shire 145 – 145 . Oxford
- Fabrizio , Sessa . 1687 . Geologia-nella quale si spiega che la terre e non le stelle influisca ne suoi corpi terrestre Naples in which it is explained that the earth, not the stars, influences terrestrial bodies. On page 141 is the definition: ‘Le Geologia che veramente e quella che discorre della Terra e suoi influssi’. I am indebted to Carole Lee Saffiotti for aid in translation.
- Erasmus , Warren . 1690 . Geologia; or, a discourse concerning the earth before the deluge London Dethlevus Cluverus, Geologia (1700, Hamburg): and Johannes Schnabel, Dissertio philosophica (1709. Rostock). The seventeenth-century Latin development of ‘Geologia’ as a book title may have been encouraged by the famous Geographia of Ptolemy, which was appearing in numerous editions.
- Martin , Benjamin . 1735 . The philosophical grammar 11 – 11 . London 12. There were further editions in 1738, 1748, 1753, 1755, 1762, 1769 and 1778 (see John R. Milburn, Benjamin Martin (1976, London), 194). Martin's classifications elaborate upon those proposed more than a century earlier by Francis Bacon (De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum (1623), Book II, chapter III). Bacon, of course, never uses the word ‘geology’, but he may have been the first writer in English to advocate a science of geological phenomena.
- Except as noted, these dictionaries are alphabetically arranged, and all were published in London: Bailey Nathan Dictionarium Britannicum , second edition 1730 1736); Benjamin Martin, Bibliotheca technologia (1737), 402, 422–429; Samuel Johnson, English dictionary (1755); and Joseph Nicol Scott, A New universal etymological English dictionary (1764). How effective these dictionaries were in promulgating new words is dubious. ‘For several years after the foundation of the earth's history was securely laid’, writes the Father of English Geology, ‘we had no words for the science, no language in which we could convey our ideas; its present comprehensive name of Geology remained unnoticed in dictionaries and unuttered in England, and usage had scarcely settled whether the word strata should not have an S appended’ (William Smith, letter of 17 May 1839, quoted in John Phillips. Memoirs of William Smith, LL.D. (1844, London), 72).
- Diderot , Denis . 1751–1772 . Encyclopédie Vol. 1 , 1 – 1 . Paris 38 vols. (1975) [small Roman 50]. The diagram is opposite p. xlvii. Arthur Birembaut and Kenneth L. Taylor precede me in pointing out Diderot's use of the word. Influence from Benjamin Martin is likely, as there was a French translation of his Philosophical grammar in 1749.
- André De Lue , Jean . 1778 . Lettres physiques et morales, sur les montagnes et sur l'histoire de la terre et de l'homme vii – viii . The Hague (note): ‘Je n'entends ici par Cosmologie que la connoissance de la Terre, & non celle de l'Univers. Dans ce sens, Geologie eût été le mot propre; mais je n'ose m'en servir, parce qu'il n'est pas usité’. My translation (checked by Orpheus Johnson) echoes that of the Rev. Henry De La Fite, who asserted of geology in 1831 that ‘the name by which this science is now universally known, was invented by De Luc' (J. A. De Luc, Letters on the physical history of the earth (ed. De La Fite: 1831, London), ln).
- André De Luc , Jean . 1779 . Lettres physiques et morales sur l'histoire de la terre et de l'homme Vol. 6 , Paris and The Hague volume 5 being in two parts In his revised note (p. 7), De Luc now says: ‘Je répète ici, ce que j'avois dit dans ma première Préface, sur la substitution du mot Cosmologie à celui de Géologie, quoiqu'il ne s'agisse pas de l'Univers, mais seulement de la Terre; c'est que l'usage ordinaire a consacré le premier de ces mots, dans le sens o`u je l'emploie; puisque c'est de là que vient Cosmopolite’. He twice uses ‘Géologie’ in his text, on pages 4 and 5.
- Bénédict de Saussure , Horace . 1779–1796 . Voyages dans les Alpes Vol. 1 , vii – vii . Neuchâtel 4 vols. xvi. The original French is: ‘La science qui rassemble les faits, que seuls peuvent servir de base a la Théorie de la Terre ou à la Géologie, c'est la Géographie physique, or la description de notre Globe’. In later volumes, see paragraphs 625, 647, 1082 and 1537.
- Geikie , Archibald . 1905 . The founders of geology , 2nd ed. 186 – 186 . New York repr. 1962
- De Saussure . 1779–1796 . Voyages dans les Alpes Vol. 1 , vii – vii . Neuchâtel (twice), xi, ‘Geologue’: OED: and Katherine M. Lyell (ed.), Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., Life, letters and journals (2 vols., 1881, London), vol. 1, 134. For the others, OED finds ‘geologer’ (1822), ‘geologian’ (1837) and ‘geologician’ (1817).
- Johnson , R. Brimley , ed. 1925 . The letters of Hannah More 83 – 83 . London
- Mitchill , Samuel Latham . 1787 . Observations … to which are added geological remarks on the maritime parts of New York New York He republished the ‘Geological remarks’ separately in 1789. This earliest use of the word ‘geology’ in America was discovered by Robert M. Hazen. For Mitchill's lecture series, see Anon., A history of Columbia University, 1754–1904 (1904, New York), 76, as quoted in William Martin Smallwood, Natural history and the American mind (1941, New York), 298.
- Walker , John . 1966 . Lectures on geology Edited by: Scott , Harold W. 18 – 18 . Chicago and London 21, 27, 165, 170, 180, 200 and 214; Scott's claim for Walker's use of the word ‘geology’ is at the foot of page 18. Jean André De Luc, ‘Third letter to Dr. James Hutton’, Monthly review, n.s., 3 (1791), 575; ‘Fourth letter to Dr. James Hutton’, Monthly Review, n.s., 5 (1791), 565, 567; and ‘Letter to Prof. Blumenbach’, British critic, 2 (1793), 231–232. See also Richard Kirwan, ‘Examination of the supposed igneous origin of stony substances’, Trans. Royal Irish Acad., 5 (1793), 58, 59, 65; ‘On the primitive state of the globe and its subsequent catastrophe’, Trans. Royal Irish Acad., 6 (1797), 234; and Geological essays (1799, London), iii. Kirwan is the first to use ‘Geological’ in the title of a book-length publication. De Luc's letters to Hutton and Blumenbach, reinforced by his earlier usages of 1778, 1779, and 1783, suggest that we owe the effective adoption of the word ‘geology’ to him, though its effective originator in English was Benjamin Martin.
- Hutton , James . 1794 . Observations on granite . Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. , 3 : 81 – 81 . In Theory of the earth (2 vols., 1795, Edinburgh) we find: ‘geology’, vol. 1, 213, 216, 342n, 495, 570; vol. 2, 43, 259, 427. ‘geological’, vol. 1, 205, 212 (2), 217 (quoted from Kirwan), 218, 219, 220, 269 (chapter heading), 283, 286, 288 (2), 290, 296 (2), 310, 336, 361, 494 (2), 506n; vol. 2, t.p. ‘geologist(s)’, vol. 1, 238, 269 (2), 273 (2), 278, 279, 280, 304, 394, 422; vol. 2, 42, 328. Although volume 3 (1899, London) includes material from the 1780s, we have ‘geological’ (pp. 152, 154) and ‘geology’ (p. 156) only in chapter VIII, which was written later.
- The Rev. Warner Richard A tour through the northern counties of England 1802 1 95 95 2 vols. Bath Even earlier, John Barrow's Account of the travels into South Africa (1801, London) includes ‘Cursory observations on the geology’ of that continent.
- Both encyclopedias specifically oppose Hutton, however. See also Porter The making of geology: earth science in Britain, 1660–1815 Cambridge 1977 202 204
- Bakewell uses ‘Speculative geology’ in 1813: ‘Scriptural geology’ arose about the same time, becoming a book title in 1826. See Millhauser Milton The scriptural geologists: an episode in the history of opinion Osiris 1954 11 65 86
- Lyell , Charles . 1830–33 . Principles of geology Vol. 1 , 1 – 1 . London 3 vols.
- Lyell . 1881 . Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., Life, letters and journals Vol. 1 , 346 – 347 . London 2 vols.
Annals of Science
Volume 36, 1979 - Issue 1