noosphere

noun

noo·​sphere ˈnō-ə-ˌsfir 

: the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity especially in regard to its influence on the biosphere and in relation to evolution

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French noosphère, from Greek noo-, combining form of nóos, contracted noûs "mind, intellect" (of uncertain origin) + French -sphère -sphere

Note: Probably first used by Pierre teilhard de chardin in a 1925 essay "L'hominisation," published in La vision du passé (Paris, 1957), volume 3 of his Oeuvres, p. 89. The genesis of the word is also associated with the French philosopher and mathematician Édouard Le Roy and the Russian-Ukrainian geochemist Vladimir Ivanovič Vernadskij, with whom Teilhard was in contact at the time.

First Known Use

1930, in the meaning defined above