[Taxacom] Taxacom Digest, Vol 33, Issue 19

[Thomas Lammers]

----- Original Message -----
From: sajid shaikh <meetsajid at rediffmail.com>

> how the word botany come into existance?  is anybody know this?<

>From www.oed.com:

[ad. med.L. botanicus, a. Gr. {beta}{omicron}{tau}{alpha}{nu}{iota}{kappa}{goacu}{fsigma}, f. {beta}{omicron}{tau}{gaacu}{nu}-{eta} plant: see -IC; perhaps the immediate source is F. botanique, which occurs in Cotgrave, 1611.] 

In view of the last comment, perhaps a source in French should be sought.

Early examples of its use, cited by www.oed.com:
1696 RAY Philos. Lett. (1718) 290 The great difficulties the lovers of Botanie are forced to encounter. 1706 HEARNE Rem. & Coll. (1885) I. 233 A man much inclined to Botanny. 1710 M. HENRY Exp. Song of Sol. iv, Solomon was a great master in botany. 1880 GRAY Struct. Bot. Introd. 1 The two Biological Sciences..Zoology and Botany.

Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Curator of the Herbarium
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/Lammers.htm
http://www.kewbooks.com/asps/ShowDetails.asp?id=615