A brief history of the ‘physicist’

Iwan Rhys Morus

doi:10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8

A brief history of the ‘physicist’

Iwan Rhys Morus^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of History & Welsh History

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/Debate

Abstract

Although the practice of doing physics has a long history, the term ‘physicist’ is less than 200 years old. Historian Iwan Rhys Morus traces the roots of the word and discusses its slow acceptance by the community it came to describe.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	64-65
Number of pages	2
Journal	Nature Reviews Physics
Volume	7
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8
Publication status	Published - 01 Sept 2025

Access to Document

10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8

Permanent link

Persistent link

Cite this

@article{ea3ec5bf799d45c185ef17bc6b6dabbf,

title = "A brief history of the {\textquoteleft}physicist{\textquoteright}",

abstract = "Although the practice of doing physics has a long history, the term {\textquoteleft}physicist{\textquoteright} is less than 200 years old. Historian Iwan Rhys Morus traces the roots of the word and discusses its slow acceptance by the community it came to describe.",

author = "Morus, \{Iwan Rhys\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Springer Nature Limited 2025.",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

pages = "64--65",

journal = "Nature Reviews Physics",

issn = "2522-5820",

publisher = "Springer Nature",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A brief history of the ‘physicist’

AU - Morus, Iwan Rhys

PY - 2025/9/1

Y1 - 2025/9/1

N2 - Although the practice of doing physics has a long history, the term ‘physicist’ is less than 200 years old. Historian Iwan Rhys Morus traces the roots of the word and discusses its slow acceptance by the community it came to describe.

AB - Although the practice of doing physics has a long history, the term ‘physicist’ is less than 200 years old. Historian Iwan Rhys Morus traces the roots of the word and discusses its slow acceptance by the community it came to describe.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85217191597

U2 - 10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8

DO - 10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8

M3 - Comment/Debate

SN - 2522-5820

VL - 7

SP - 64

EP - 65

JO - Nature Reviews Physics

JF - Nature Reviews Physics

IS - 2

ER -

A brief history of the ‘physicist’

Abstract

Access to Document

Permanent link

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this