19 Feb
Mary Somerville is the reason for the word ‘scientist.’ A self-taught mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, she was a master of connecting the physical sciences. In 1834, she’d impressed a historian who found himself unable to publicly praise her because the only common description for that sort of scholar was ‘man of science.’ He then coined the term ‘scientist’- but it wasn’t intended to be a gender-neutral noun, it was specifically a reference to Mary Somerville’s expertise. Source Source 2 Source 3