That if the original meanings are, in fact, «ambiguous,»
as the gentleman proposes, then it is difficult to understand how the article in question carries any authority whatsoever either way.
Members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had been complaining about the lack of a good term at recent meetings, Whewell reported in his review; alluding to himself, he noted that «some ingenious
gentleman proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form [the word] scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this term since we already have such words
as economist, and atheist — but this was not generally palatable».