From Symmetry: “A brief etymology of particle physics”
05/30/17
Daniel Garisto
Illustration by Sandbox Studio, Chicago
Over the years, physicists have given names to the smallest constituents of our universe.
This pantheon of particles has grown alongside progress in physics. Anointing a particle with a name is not just convenient; it marks a leap forward in our understanding of the world around us.
The etymology of particle physics contains a story that connects these sometimes outlandish names to a lineage of scientific thought and experiment.
So, without further ado, Symmetry presents a detailed guide to the etymology of particles—some we’ve found and others we have yet to discover.
Editor’s note: PIE, referenced throughout, refers to proto-Indo-European, one of the earliest known languages.
[NOTE: IN THE FULL ARTCLE THESE ARE ALL HOT LINKS. TOO MANY FOR ME, GO TO THE FULL ARTICLE FOR THE LINKS.]
Discovered particles
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ion ion
fermion Fermi + on
lepton leptos + on
electron electric + on
muon mu-meson (contraction)
tau triton
neutrino neutro (diminutive)
quark quark
boson Bose + on
photon photo + on
Higgs boson Higgs + boson
W boson weak + boson
Z boson zero + boson
gluon glue + on
hadron hadros + on
baryon barys + on
proton protos + on
neutron neutral + on
meson mesos + on
antimatter anti + matter
Hypothetical particles
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axion Axion
chameleon chameleon
graviton gravity + on
majoron Majorana + on
tachyon tachy + on
supersymmetric particles super + symmetry
See the full article here .
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Symmetry is a joint Fermilab/SLAC publication.
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