Who Invented the Word Asteroid: William Herschel or Stephen Weston?

Details Who Invented the Word Asteroid: William Herschel or Stephen Weston? Who Invented the Word Asteroid: William Herschel or Stephen Weston?

Jan 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...217.9806c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #98.06

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William Herschel made the first serious study of 1 Ceres and 2 Pallas in the year 1802. He was moved by their dissimilarities to the other planets to coin a new term to distinguish them. For this purpose he enlisted the aid of his good friends William Watson and Sir Joseph Banks. Watson gave him a long list of possible names, most of which sound quite ludicrous. With a lifetime of experience classifying and naming newly found objects in nature, Banks became the man both Erasmus Darwin (in 1781) and William Herschel (in 1802) turned to for sage advice in developing a new descriptive language. In the case of Ceres and Pallas, Banks turned the task over to his friend, the noted philologist Stephen Weston FRS. It has recently been stated by a noted British historian that it was Weston- not Herschel- who coined the term "asteroid" to collectively describe Ceres and Pallas. This claim is investigated, and parallels are drawn in the use of neologism in astronomy and botany.

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