Antedatings of the OED Entries for ‘Spinozism, N.’ and ‘Spinozist, N.’

The Oxford Dictionary (OED) under Spinozism, n. states that the earliest recorded use of the term dates back to 1728, 1 appearing in Ephraim Chambers' (1647-1706) entry 'SPINOSISM' in his Cyclopaedia: Or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. 2 The same source is also cited for the earliest known occurrence of the noun 'Spinozist', as noted in the OED under Spinozist, n. 3 In this contribution, I draw on data from Google Ngrams to trace and date earlier uses of the nouns 'Spinozism' and 'Spinozist' than those recorded in the OED. 4 The earliest recorded instance of 'Spinozism' appears in the 1708 anonymous English translation of Suplement du commentaire philosophique sur ses paroles de Jesus-Chrit [sic], contsrain-les d'entrer (1688), written by the Rotterdam-based French philosopher Pierre Bayle (1647-1706). 5 In this work, Bayle remarks that a conception of God lacking the freedom to create the world in various ways is 'a Doctrine very little better than Spinozism'. 6 Another instance appears in a 1710 review pub-

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Journal
Notes and Queries
Published
2025-09-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjaf098
Primary Topic
Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
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article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Antedatings of the OED Entries for ‘Spinozism, N.’ and ‘Spinozist, N.’

Steffen Ducheyne
Notes and Queries
Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
article

Antedatings of the OED Entries for ‘Spinozism, N.’ and ‘Spinozist, N.’

Steffen Ducheyne
article en

Abstract

The Oxford Dictionary (OED) under Spinozism, n. states that the earliest recorded use of the term dates back to 1728, 1 appearing in Ephraim Chambers' (1647-1706) entry 'SPINOSISM' in his Cyclopaedia: Or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. 2 The same source is also cited for the earliest known occurrence of the noun 'Spinozist', as noted in the OED under Spinozist, n. 3 In this contribution, I draw on data from Google Ngrams to trace and date earlier uses of the nouns 'Spinozism' and 'Spinozist' than those recorded in the OED. 4 The earliest recorded instance of 'Spinozism' appears in the 1708 anonymous English translation of Suplement du commentaire philosophique sur ses paroles de Jesus-Chrit [sic], contsrain-les d'entrer (1688), written by the Rotterdam-based French philosopher Pierre Bayle (1647-1706). 5 In this work, Bayle remarks that a conception of God lacking the freedom to create the world in various ways is 'a Doctrine very little better than Spinozism'. 6 Another instance appears in a 1710 review pub-

Notes and QueriesVol. 72(4)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
Fonds Spéciaux de Recherche
Openalex Percentile: Top 64%
Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
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