力学に関する基本的な術語の形成過程

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At the end of the eighteenth century when Japanese came to know the fruit of modern dynamics in the West and began to introduce it into this country, the Japanese scholars in this field met with a difficulty of what Japanese words should be adopted as technical terms of the fundamental ideas of modern dynamics. At first they being unable to realize the basic thoughts in modern dynamics, had often selected inadequate translations. For example, they translated velocity as "sokuryoku", and momentum as "doryoku". Since "Ryoku" in Japanese means force or power, it follows that the Japanese scholars at that time understood velocity and momentum from the point of view of vis impressa. This paper treats with mechanics and dynamics, velocity and speed, momentum, moment, inertia, and mass as the most fundamental technical terms of modern dynamics, and investigates how each of the words was transmitted into Japanese. The chief results are as follows: 1) Not a few Chinese translations of technical terms came into Japan as they were: 2) Though the scholars of Dutch studies before the Meiji Restoration (1868) and the ones of foreign studies after the Restoration worked hard in translating and publishing Western books on modern science in Japan, they were unable to create the technical terms suitable for the contents of those books and assimilate them into Japanese; 3) After the Meiji Restoration the physicists to have regularly learned modern dynamics appeared on stage and made up not a few technical terms for the first time. From 1883 to 1888 "Butsurigaku Yakugo Kai" (the Physical Terms Translation Council) had been held with some 36 members of the scholars who had regularly studied modern physics, and there how the Japanese translations of technical terms should be selected was discussed and most of the principal words in this field were decided. As a general rule those translations were adequate and they became the foundation of physical terms. Therefore, it may be said that the Japanese terms of dynamics were made between 1868 and 1883, and collected during from 1883 to 1888.
日本科学史学会の論文
1980-01-31

力学に関する基本的な術語の形成過程

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