<P> The earliest recorded usages were Tao (1736), Tau (1747), Taou (1831), and Dao (1971). </P> <P> A derivative, Daoshi (Chinese: 道士, "Daoist priest"), was used already by the Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault in their De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas, rendered as Tausu in the original Latin edition (1615), and Tausa in an early English translation published by Samuel Purchas (1625). </P>

All of the following are accurate interpretations of the tao except which one