'Emotional intelligence' sat in an obscure journal for 5 years before it was a bestseller

Psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer coined 'emotional intelligence' in a 1990 academic paper, defining it as the ability to monitor and use emotions in your own thinking. It stayed a niche term in psychology journals until 1995, when journalist Daniel Goleman's bestselling book of the same name turned 'EQ' into a household phrase.

— Peter Salovey, John D. Mayer, Emotional Intelligence — Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 1990