MichaelisA. R., Review of F. Bray, Agriculture, Volume VI, Part 2, of J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews10, 94 (1985).
4.
The coining of neologisms became an essential activity for Needham as he had to translate Chinese concepts into English, which lacked equivalent expresssions. Here in Botany we came across igneity, lapidity, hydrosis and geosis; in the relevant footnote to these neologisms (p. 307e), Needham states that he is in the good company of Peter Roget, who also experienced a lack of suitable terms when composing his Thesaurus in 1852, and had to invent new ones. A thorough discussion of these difficult problems was presented byNeedham and Lu Gwei-Djenin‘Problems of Translation and Modernisation of Ancient Chinese Technical Terms’, Annals of Science32, 491 (1975).
