The earliest known use of this word occurs in a report (1834) of a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, where it was proposed – but rejected – that it should be adopted as a general name for a student of natural science. It was introduced, apparently independently, by William Whewell in 1840. The word did not win widespread acceptance for many years; as late as 1890 it was criticized as ‘an ignoble Americanism’. The form sciencist was recorded earlier, in 1785, but in the sense ‘a person employing scientific principles’. Earlier terms for a person practising science include philosopher, natural philosopher, and naturalist, but none of these is precisely equivalent to the modern term