======================== HES POSTING ================= On Fri, 10 Oct 1997 08:35:00 MST [log in to unmask] wrote: > Does anyone know when the term "utility" was first used in economics? Did its > use over time change (especially in the 19th Century and before (?)), and if > so, how and why? Misselden (1622) used the word, but as a synonym for usefulness, referring mainly to the usefulness of particular laws. Ferguson (1767) used it to mean happiness, which is getting closer. Adam Smith (1776), of course, was a bit closer to moden usage than Ferguson. (I have just used search facilities on a text archive to turn these up, in my case the Bristol archive http://www.ecn.bris.ac.uk/het/index.htm) Tony Brewer ([log in to unmask]) University of Bristol, Department of Economics ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]