science

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsaɪ.əns/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English science, borrowed from Old French science (“knowledge, learning”),^[2][3] from Latin scientia (“knowledge, expertness”),^[2][3][4] from sciēns (“knowing, skilled”), present participle of scīre (“to know”).^[2][5][4] Etymonline and Barnhart think the Latin verb originally meant “to separate one thing from another, distinguish”, related to scindere (“to cut, split”),^[2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *skei- (“to cut, split”).^[2][5] Latin scīre is also in conscience and nice.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Knowledge, a branch of learning, skill: about 1340,^[3] or before 1340 in the OED, as “the state or fact of knowing”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that science was originally knowledge in general, or any branch of it, including the arts.^[7] From the late 14th century it meant book learning, a particular branch of knowledge, and skill or cleverness.^[2] A craft or trade was a science from about 1400.^[2][8] Collective human knowledge gained by observation, experiment and reasoning is from the late 14th century.^[2] The modern restricted sense, a body of methodical observations about a subject, is by 1725,^[2][8] and in the 17th and 18th centuries this was commonly called philosophy.^[2] The distinction of science from art is from 1678.^[8] Trained skill, especially in boxing, is science from 1785,^[8] a use also found in Somerset dialect.^[9] Science fiction is a 20th-century compound, and blind with science is from 1937.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – knowledge, learning.^[3][8]
• late 14th century – a branch of knowledge.^[2]
• c. 1480 – a craft or trade.^[8]
• 1678 – contrasted with art.^[8]
• 1725 – the modern restricted sense.^[2][8]
• 1785 – trained skill, as in boxing.^[8]
• 1937 – blind with science.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The observation, experimental investigation and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.
2. A branch of such study: the natural sciences.
3. Systematic knowledge of any subject; a method of study applied to it.
4. Knowledge, especially gained through experience; skill.

Word family

• antiscience
• interscience
• proscience
• scientism
• subscience
• nonscience
• omniscience
• pseudoscience

Related words

• engineering
• technology
• scientist
• scientific
• conscience
• nice
• omniscient
• schism
• shed

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)