nobel | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

5 entries found.

1900, in reference to five prizes (in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace) established in the will of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish chemist and engineer, inventor of dynamite. A sixth prize, in economics, was added in 1969. Related: Nobelist.

nobelium (n.)

transuranic element, 1957, named for Alfred Nobel (q.v.). With metallic element ending -ium.

hologram (n.)

1949, coined by Hungarian-born British scientist Dennis Gabor (Gábor Dénes), 1971 Nobel prize winner in physics for his work in holography; from Greek holos "whole" (here in sense of "three-dimensional;" from PIE root *sol- "whole, well-kept") + -gram.

dynamite (n.)

powerful explosive consisting of a mixture of nitroglycerine with an absorbent, 1867, from Swedish dynamit, coined 1867 by its inventor, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), from Greek dynamis "power" (see dynamic (adj.)) + -ite (2). Figurative sense of "something potentially dangerous" is from 1922. Positive sense of "dynamic and excellent" by mid-1960s, perhaps originally African-American vernacular.

laureate (adj.)

"crowned with laurels" (as a mark of distinction), late 14c., earliest reference is to poetic distinction, from Latin laureatus "crowned with laurels," from laurea "laurel crown" (emblematic of victory or distinction in poetry), from fem. of laureus "of laurel," from laurus "laurel" (see laurel (n.)).

Laureat poete is first found in "Canterbury Tales" (in reference to Petrarch -- Fraunceys Petrak); it also was used in Middle English of Aesop and, by early 15c., of Chaucer. Inverted form poet laureate, in imitation of Latin word order, is from c. 1400 in English); the first official one probably was Ben Jonson (1638), though the first recorded one was Dryden (1668). Extended 1947 to Nobel prize winners. As a noun, 1520s, from the adjective or from a mistaken reading of poet laureate. Related: Laureateship (1732), laureation.

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