Translators as wordsmiths: lexical innovations in Harvey's De Motu Cordis in English

The chapter focuses on lexical innovations in the English translation of William Harvey's De Motu Cordis. Originally written in Latin for an international readership and published in 1628, Harvey's treatise was translated into English in 1653 for a new generation of scientists and doctors that were increasingly using the vernacular langugage for the promotion of experimental science. English scientific terminology in the 17th and 18th centuries was closely linked to the scientific discoveries of those days, and translators were instrumental in its development. The anonymous translator of the De Motu Cordis aimed at lexical accuracy, that is to say the reduction of polysemy, ambiguity and vagueness: he did not only use recent learned loanwords from foreign languages, but he was also ready to create neologisms.