Noun
gedankenexperiment (plural gedankenexperiments)
thought experiment
The English term thought experiment was coined (as a calque ) from Mach's Gedankenexperiment, and it first appeared in the 1897 English translation of one of Mach’s papers. Source: Internet
Much later, Ernst Mach used the term Gedankenexperiment in a different way, to denote exclusively the imaginary conduct of a real experiment that would be subsequently performed as a real physical experiment by his students. Source: Internet
Origins and use of the literal term Johann Witt-Hansen established that Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to use the Latin-German mixed term Gedankenexperiment (lit. thought experiment) circa 1812. Source: Internet