natural philosophern.

a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1871) III. 65 (MED) Þis naturel philosofer [L. Fisicus] and dyuynour serchede kynde and vertues of þynges..and tolde to forehonde þe eclipses of þe sonne and of þe mone.

?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens i. sig. Cj ^v A physycyen and Cyrurgyen ought for to knowe y^e complexion of the membres, as natural Phylosophers.

1579 W. Fulke Heskins Parl. Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 172 The eternitie of the worlde, which is held by some naturall philosophers.

1657 J. Trapp Comm. Job xxxviii. 38 The large Discourses of the natural Philosophers concerning that Subject.

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Masse. This Word is used by the Natural Philosophers to express the Quantity of Matter in any Body.

1797 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 653/2 Whether matter is acted on.., or whether it acts of itself.., makes no difference to the natural philosopher.

1850 F. D. Maurice Moral & Metaphysical Philos. (ed. 2) I. 85 The natural philosophers of Greece are divided into the dynamical and mechanical—Thales being assigned to the former class.

1888 Dict. National Biogr. XIV. 187/1 Davy, Sir Humphry.., natural philosopher, was born at Penzance.

1901 M. Foster Lect. Hist. Physiol. 167 The famous theory of phlogiston, which ruled with a rod of iron, as it were, the thoughts of natural philosophers for a hundred years.

1960 D. C. Braungart & R. Buddeke Introd. Animal Biol. (ed. 5) i. 18 Nowhere in ancient times will you find any references to a chemist, a physicist, or a biologist, for all who speculated about the nature of things were called natural philosophers.

1999 Isis 90 715 It also enabled him to solidify his status as a gentleman and the intellectual equal of both his mentor and other natural philosophers.