The History of English in Ten Minutes. Chapter 5: The English of Science, or how
to speak with gravity. Before the 17th century scientists weren't really
recognised, possibly because lab coats had yet to catch on, but suddenly Britain
was full of physicists. There was Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and even some people
not called Robert, like Isaac Newton. The Royal Society was formed out of the
invisible College after they put it down somewhere and couldn't find it again.
At first they worked in Latin, after sitting through Newton's story about the
pomum falling to the terra from the arbor for the umpteenth time, the bright
sparks realised they all spoke English and they could transform our
understanding of the universe much quicker by talking in their own language.
But science was discovering things faster than they could name them. Words
like acid, gravity, electricity and pendulum had to be invented just to stop
their meetings turning to an endless game of charades. Like teenage boys
the scientists suddenly became aware of the human body, coining new words like
cardiac and tonsil, ovary and sternum, and the invention of penis and vagina made
sex education classes a bit easier to follow, though clitoris was still a
source of confusion.