gas
Pronunciation
Forms
gas n (genitive gasis); third declension[1] In the Ortus Medicinae it is indeclinable.[1]
Etymology
It is a coinage of the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont (1577–1644),[1][2] probably from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “empty space”).[2] The Dutch sound of ⟨g⟩ is roughly that of Greek ⟨χ⟩, and van Helmont was probably influenced by Paracelsus, who used chaos in an occult sense for the proper elements of spirits or a highly rarefied water, the sense van Helmont gave to his word.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
Van Helmont introduces it in the Ortus Medicinae: Hunc spiritum, incognitum hactenus, novo nomine gas voco, “this spirit, unknown until now, I call by a new name, gas”.[2][1]
Semantic evolution
Van Helmont's gas was a vapour or spirit unknown before him.[2] Wiktionary declines it in the third declension and gives it the sense of the state of matter in physics.[1] The modern scientific sense of the English word began in 1779.[2]
Timeline
- 1577–1644 – Jan Baptist van Helmont coins it in the Ortus Medicinae.[2][1]
- 1650s – English takes the word over, from Dutch.[2]
- 1779 – The modern scientific sense begins in English.[2]