There are many approaches to approaching the term paleomagnetism—classically etymological, for example, with reference to the meaning of the affix “paleo” from the (ancient) Greek palaios (παλαιóς), meaning “old”, “former”, “former”. We know the use of this affix from other, often scientific terms such as “paleontology” (the study of ancient beings, i.e., fossils, in the sense of deciphering past life forms and their environment), “Paleozoic” (ancient earth in the sense of the oldest time period in the development of living beings) or “Paleolithic” (Old Stone Age, in the sense of the oldest time period in the use of stone tools in human history since the Pleistocene).