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That doesn’t seem true and a lazy search seems to support that it’s not true.
Oh well
It didn’t seem true to me either but Wiktionary does claim it as true and cites their source. Wiktionary: Scientist
Natural philosopher was falling out of favour since they weren’t really philosophers. Man of science was being used as a replacement but, in this specific case, didnt apply. “Scientist” was suggested and people just figured it was shorter than “man of science” and more accurate than “natural philosopher”. It also followed other words like artist, economist, atheist.
The etymology has no mentions of her. https://www.etymonline.com/word/scientist
And it wasn’t used because there was no apt term for her, the confusion comes from that the guy who invented it first used it in writing in a review of her work. https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/71/1/46/819012/Mary-Somerville-s-vision-of-scienceThe-Scottish
