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Origin and history of technology

technology(n.)

1610s, "a discourse or treatise on an art or the arts," from Latinized form of Greek tekhnologia "systematic treatment of an art, craft, or technique," originally referring to grammar, from tekhno-, combining form of tekhnē "art, skill, craft in work; method, system, an art, a system or method of making or doing," from PIE *teks-na- "craft" (of weaving or fabricating), from suffixed form of root *teks- "to weave," also "to fabricate." For ending, see -logy.

The meaning "study of mechanical and industrial arts" as a branch of knowledge (Century Dictionary, 1895, gives as examples "spinning, metal-working, or brewing") is recorded by 1859. High technology is attested by 1956; short form high-tech by 1972.

technology

also from 1610s

Entries linking to technology

biotechnology(n.)

also bio-technology, 1947, "use of machinery in relation to human needs;" it is attested from 1964 in sense of "use of biological processes in industrial production," from bio- + technology.

nanotechnology(n.)

loosely, "study and application of extremely small things" in many scientific fields, by 1974 (but not widely used before 1990s), from nano- + technology. Often applied to manipulation of individual atoms and molecules, and sometimes given a precise range (up to 100 nanometers), but the sense of nano- here seems best explained as "very small."

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amplification
Originally in English often of rhetorical devices; the meaning "enlargement of sound by electrical technology" is from 1915...
distracted
Distracted driving is attested by 1999 in automobile safety technology....
Luddite
Applied by 1961 to modern spurners of automation and technology. As an adjective from 1812....
television
Telegraphing Pictures" in Windsor Magazine, vol. xxvi, June-November 1907] Other proposals for the name of a then-hypothetical technology...The technology was developed in the 1920s and '30s. Nativized in German as Fernsehen. Shortened form TV is from 1948....
information
Information theory is from 1950; information technology is from 1958 (coined in "Harvard Business Review"); information revolution...
cinema
photographs in rapid succession so as to produce the illusion of movement," coined 1890s by Lumiere brothers, who invented the technology...
post-modern
seriously to affect the current system of knowledge and belief; and it has not hitherto seriously taken effect except in technology...
discipline
c. 1200, "penitential chastisement; punishment for the sake of correction," from Old French descepline "discipline, physical punishment; teaching; suffering; martyrdom" (11c., Modern French discipline) and directly from Latin disciplina "instruction given, teaching, learning, kno
it
Old English hit, neuter nominative and accusative of third person singular pronoun, from Proto-Germanic demonstrative base *khi- (source also of Old Frisian hit, Dutch het, Gothic hita "it"), from PIE *ko- "this" (see he). Used in place of any neuter noun, hence, as gender faded
study
early 12c., studien, "to strive toward, devote oneself to, cultivate" (virtue, vice, wisdom, art, etc., sometimes translating Latin occupare), from Old French estudiier "to study, apply oneself, show zeal for; examine" (13c., Modern French étudier). This is from Medieval Latin st

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