physicist | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

11 entries found.

named for 17c. Irish-born chemist and physicist Robert Boyle, who published it in 1662.

measure of speed relative to the speed of sound (technically Mach number), 1937, named in honor of Austrian physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916).

Angstrom (n.)

unit of length equal to one hundred millionth of a centimeter (used to measure wavelengths of light), 1892, named for Swedish physicist Anders Ångström (1814-1874).

Geiger counter (n.)

1924, named for German physicist Hans Geiger (1882-1945), who invented it with Walther Müller. The surname is literally "fiddler."

Hertz

unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second, 1928, named in reference to German physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894). Related: Hertzian.

Van Allen

name of radiation belts around the Earth (and certain other planets), 1959, from U.S. physicist James A. Van Allen (1914-2006), who reported them in 1958.

Sabin

in reference to the polio vaccine, 1955, from name of Russian-born U.S. microbiologist Albert B. Sabin (1906-1993), who developed it. As a unit of sound absorption by 1934, for U.S. physicist Wallace C. Sabine (1868-1919), founder of architectural acoustics.

Fahrenheit (adj.)

temperature scale, 1753, named for Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), Prussian physicist who proposed the scale in 1714. The "zero" in it is arbitrary, based on the lowest temperature observed by him during the winter of 1709 in Danzig. An abstract surname meaning literally "experience."

Bakelite (n.)

type of plastic widely used early 20c., 1909, from German Bakelit, named for Belgian-born U.S. physicist Leo Baekeland (1863-1944), who invented it. Originally a proprietary name, it is formed by the condensation of a phenol with an aldehyde.

Einstein (n.)

as a type-name for a person of genius, 1920, in reference to German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who was world-famous from 1919 through media accounts of his work in theoretical physics. According to "German-American Names" (George F. Jones, 3rd ed., 2006) it means literally "place encompassed by a stone wall."

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