A Seventeenth-Century Antedating of the OED Entry for ‘Pseudoscience, n.’

The Oxford Dictionary (OED) under pseudoscience, n. states that the earliest occurrence of the word ‘pseudoscience’ dates back to 1796 and occurs in the first volume of James Pettit Andrew’s (1737–97) History of Great Britain, in which the term is used to discredit alchemy. Andrew’s use of the word, just like the later uses mentioned under pseudoscience, n., all occur in scientific contexts. Searches on Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, the search tool provided by Royal Society Publishing, and Google Ngrams have led to the discovery of a seventeenth-century antedating of the word. The antedating I discovered occurs in John Sheffield’s ([Sheffeild], d. 1680) A Good Conscience the Strongest Hold (1650). At a certain point in Chapter 25, entitled ‘The Use of Exhortation’, Sheffield, a clergyman to the parish of St Swithin London Stone who came from Northamptonshire and matriculated from Peterhouse, Cambridge, gave advise to young ministers and wrote: ‘Take heed to your selves, and your doctrine: Avoid prophane jangling, vain babblings, oppositions of science, Pseudo science.’ This statement is accompanied by a note containing three Biblical references, namely 1 Timothy 6:21, 1 Peter 2:25, and 1 Peter 5:4. The first among these Biblical references is useful to shed light on context in which Sheffield’s used the term ‘Pseudo science’. In the King James Version, 1 Timothy 6:21 reads: ‘Which some professing have erred concerning faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.’, a verse that seems rather unhelpful. However, when we look at the preceding verse, 1 Timothy 6:20, we read: ‘O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:’, which shows that Sheffield’s use of ‘Pseudo science’ needs to be understood in light of 1 Timothy 6:20. The oldest currently known instance of the word ‘pseudoscience’ occurred therefore, not in a scientific, but in a religious context.