Science

What does “science” actually mean? What does it encompass?

Slavic

Slovak or Czech word “veda” refers to the ancient Vedas. These are the holy scriptures of ancient India. The name probably means “giving (da) knowledge (ve)”. The Vedas consist of two parts. The first is about the worldly knowledge and the later part (Upanishads) are about the sacred knowledge of the non-changing God.

The original meaning refers to the compendium of knowledge known as Vedas. Alas this is mostly unknown to the present speakers of the languages. The current meaning of the word is the modern, worldly science only.

Romance languages (incl. English)

The English “science” or Spanish “ciencia” are derived from Latin “sciencia” which means “knowing”, “awareness”, “understanding”.

Similar to Slavic meaning, this could be something already existing. Awareness to be learned about. But then, the root of “ciencia” seems to be the Sanskritic chid which implies division and thus generating new knowledge about the world. So if you want, both meanings are included: worldly and secular science.

German

For German language this question is very unambiguous. The very word “Wissenschaft” consists of words “Wissen” meaning “knowledge” and “schaft” referring to"creation". Thus it is about generating new knowledge about the world. Alas there is no hint of the sacred, non-changing.