Re: Greek plurals

>Andreas Johansson wrote:
>> Mark J. Reed wrote:
>[snip]
>>>Although "electron" is taken from Greek, it does not keep anything
>>>resembling its Greek meaning, which was _amber_ or, indeed, 'electron'
>>>in the sense of "an alloy of gold and silver" (a more ancient use than
>>>the naming of a sub-atomic particle).
>>
>>
>> I'd always assumed "electron" as the name of the particle was a
>> back-formation from "electric" etc, and the American Heritage Dictionary
>> indeed gives this etymology.
Certainly, considering that the electron was discovered a few centuries
later than electricity.


>> They further tell that the ending "-on" is extrapolated from "ion", which in
>> turn apparently is a greek present participle "(smth) that goes", from
_ienai_
>> "to go".
>
>Maybe - the etymologies in my dictionary are far too brief. It does
>suggest that's its a re-use of the word _electron_ on analogy with ion,
>proton etc.
>Ray
The electron was the first subatomic particle to be discovered - protons,
neutrons etc. came later. "Ion" was indeed around before tho...

(Frankly I'm surprized to discover that this ISN'T common knoledge even
here. Groing up in an extremely geeky environment ensures that I get that
pretty offen, really...)

BTW, are there any non-Greek-based neologisms for the concept of electricity
in the languages of the world, other than Finnish _sähkö_? (It's a
portmanteau of sorts of _säkenöidä_ "to sparkle" and _sähistä_ "to hiss".)

John Vertical

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