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Origin and history of atomistic

atomistic(adj.)

1809, in reference to the classical philosophical or metaphysical doctrine of atomism (1670s); modern sense (logical atomism) traces to 1914 and Bertrand Russell and the philosophy that, "while maintaining that there are many things, ... denies that there is a whole composed of these things."

also from 1809

Entries linking to atomistic

atomic(adj.)

"pertaining to atoms," 1670s as a philosophical term (see atomistic); scientific sense dates from 1811, from atom + -ic. Atomic number is attested from 1821; atomic mass is from 1848.

Atomic energy is recorded by 1906 in the modern sense (as intra-atomic energy from 1903).

March, 1903, was an historic date for chemistry. It is, also, as we shall show, a date to which, in all probability, the men of the future will often refer as the veritable beginning of the larger powers and energies that they will control. It was in March, 1903, that Curie and Laborde announced the heat-emitting power of radium. [Robert Kennedy Duncan, "The New Knowledge," 1906]

Atomic bomb is first recorded 1914 in writings of H.G. Wells ("The World Set Free"), who thought of it as a bomb "that would continue to explode indefinitely."

When you can drop just one atomic bomb and wipe out Paris or Berlin, war will have become monstrous and impossible. [S. Strunsky, Yale Review, January 1917]

Atomic Age is from 1945. Atomic clock is from 1938. Atomical "concerned with atoms," also "very minute," is from 1640s.

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