Abstract: Terminology is a discipline appealing for the improvement of scientific language. We took a survey on attempts at improving the scientific language before the advent of terminology, and classified them as three aspects: philosophy thinking, unification and normalization, development of international auxiliary languages and inter-linguistics. We think that the emergence of terminology as a science is not accidental. The advent of terminology has undergone a process of brewing and preparation, which reflects the constant advancement and improvement of human recognition.

Key words: scientific language, terminology, unification