The term "technology" rose to prominence in the 20th
century in connection with the Second Industrial
Revolution . The term's meanings changed in the early
20th century when American social scientists, beginning
with Thorstein Veblen , translated ideas from the German
concept of Technik into "technology". In German and other
European languages, a distinction exists between technik
and technologie that is absent in English, which usually
translates both terms as "technology". By the 1930s,
"technology" referred not only to the study of the
industrial arts but to the industrial arts themselves.