Expertlatin
"Super humeris gigantium stamus."
- What is standing on the shoulders of giants in Latin?
- Who first said we stand on the shoulders of giants?
- What did Isaac Newton mean by standing on the shoulders of giants?
- Where did the quote shoulders of giants come from?
What is standing on the shoulders of giants in Latin?
It is a metaphor of dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin: nanos gigantum humeris insidentes) and expresses the meaning of "discovering truth by building on previous discoveries".
Who first said we stand on the shoulders of giants?
Sir Isaac Newton, the famous English scientist, once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Of course, Newton wasn't literally standing on the shoulders of giants. Newton was explaining that his ideas didn't come from him alone. He relied on the ideas of those who came before him.
What did Isaac Newton mean by standing on the shoulders of giants?
The phrase is understood to mean that if Newton had been able to discover more about the universe than others, then it was because he was working in the light of discoveries made by fellow scientists, either in his own time or earlier.
Where did the quote shoulders of giants come from?
In a letter to Robert Hooke in 1675, Isaac Newton made his most famous statement: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”. This statement is now often used to symbolize scientific progress.
