village in Sussex, England, site where a fossil humanoid skull was said to have been found (1912); it was proved a fraud in 1953.

type of fan-leaf palm, 1580s, from Spanish palmito "dwarf fan palm tree," diminutive of palma "palm tree," from Latin palma (see palm (n.2)). The suffix was subsequently Italianized. The Palmetto Flag was an emblem of South Carolina after secession (1860); the state was called Palmetto State from at least 1837.

gaseous hydrocarbon, 1860, from French acétylène, coined by French chemist Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot from chemical ending -ene + acetyl, which was coined from acetic + -yl in 1839 by German chemist Justus von Liebig. Liebig's coinage was in reference to a different radical; acetyl was transferred to its current sense in 1850s, but Berthelot's coinage was based on the original use of acetyl.

surname of the famous family of English authors; the current version is a scholarly convention and until after the deaths of the sisters it was variously spelled and accented. Juliet Barker ("The Brontës," 1994), writes that their father was registered at Cambridge in 1802 as "Patrick Branty," which he soon corrected to Bronte. The family was Irish Protestant. "At a time when literacy was extremely rare, especially in rural districts of Ireland, the usual Brontë name was spelt in a variety of ways, ranging from Prunty to Brunty and Bruntee, with no consistent version until Patrick himself decided on 'Bronte'." [Barker]

rare metallic element, 1885, coined in Modern Latin by discoverer Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858-1929) from Greek prasios "leek-green" (from prason "leek;" traditionally identified with Latin porrum "leek," which suggests a PIE *prso-) + didymos "double" (from PIE root *dwo- "two").

The name didymia was given to an earth in 1840, so called because it was a "twin" to lanthana. When didymia was further analyzed in the 1880s, it was found to have several components, one of which was characterized by green salts and named accordingly, with the elemental suffix -ium.

1660s, from Greek baros "weight" (from suffixed form of PIE root *gwere- (1) "heavy") + -meter. The name probably was coined (and certainly popularized) by English scientist Robert Boyle (1627-1691). The instrument was invented 1643 by Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli and was at first known as the Torricelli tube.