I bet you weren’t expecting to see this as a Georgian era word! Or were you?

Dr. Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen in 1774. He did not, however, call it “oxygen,” rather he gave it the catchy name “dephlogisticated gas.” Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? The coining of the term “oxygen” didn’t come until a few years later in 1777. A new name was required after the phlogiston theory Priestley used was replaced by a new model of chemistry.

There is a much more involved history of oxygen as an element (not the name itself, which is solidly grounded in 1777), as it had been previously discovered in the early 17th century and again in the mid-18th century, but it was not until Priestley, an Englishman, was able to publish the findings that the discover was officially recognized.

Read more about Priestley and his discovery here:

https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/josephpriestleyoxygen.html