-escence

word-forming element meaning "process or state of being," from Latin -escentia, from -escentem (see -escent).

Entries linking to -escence

word-forming element meaning "beginning, becoming, tending to be," from Latin -escentem (nominative -escens), ending of present participles of verbs in -escere.

fluorescence (n.)

1852, "property of glowing in ultraviolet light," coined by English mathematician and physicist Sir George G. Stokes (1819-1903) from fluorspar (see fluorine), because in it he first noticed the phenomenon, + -escence, on analogy of phosphorescence.

luminescence (n.)

1884, coined in German physicist Eilhard Wiedemann (1852-1928) from Latin lumen (genitive luminis) "light" (from suffixed form of PIE root *leuk- "light, brightness") + -escence.

Fluorescence and Phosphorescence — Prof. E. Wiedmann has made a new study of these phenomena. He proposes the general name luminescence for evolutions of light which do not depend on the temperature of the substance concerned. ["Photographic News," April 20, 1888]

The verb luminesce (1896) is a back-formation.

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Dictionary entries near -escence

escapologist

escargot

escarole

escarp

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-escence

-escent

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eschaton

escheat

eschew