- electron
- coined 1891, from electric; electronic is 1902 in the sense of "pertaining to electrons;" 1930 as "pertaining to electronics." Electronics (1910) is the branch of physics and technology concerned with the penomenon of electrons in vacuums, gas, semi-conductors, etc.
- Heisenberg
- in ref. to Ger. physicist Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), pioneer of quantum mechanics. His "uncertainty principle" (deduced in 1927) is that an electron may have a determinate position, or a determinate velocity, but not both.
- -tron
- as a suffix in new compounds formed in physics, 1939, abstracted from electron (Gk. -tron was an instrumentive suffix).
- neutron
- 1921, coined by W.D. Harkins of Chicago from neutr(al) + -on, as in electron. First record of neutron bomb is from 1960.