- electron
- coined 1891 by Irish physicist George J. Stoney (1826–1911) from electric + -on, as in ion (q.v.). Electron microscope translates Ger. rlrktronenmikroskop (1932).
- electronic
- 1902, “pertaining to electrons;” 1930 as “pertaining to electronics;” see electron + -ic. Related: Electronically.
- 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).
- cyclotron
- 1935, from cyclo- + ending from electron.