Etymology

paradigm shift

Today it means: A radical change in thinking from an accepted point of view to a new one, necessitated when new scientific discoveries produce anomalies in the current paradigm. Full definition →

First used 1962
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The story

Coined by American historian, physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1962 A radical change in thinking from an accepted point of view to a new one, necessitated when new scientific discoveries produce anomalies in the current paradigm.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.