Etymology

fluorescence

F4L1U1O1R1E1S1C3E1N1C3E1

Today it means: The emission of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) by a material when stimulated by the absorption of radiation or of a subatomic particle. Full definition →

English fluorspar ← Middle English sparston ← Old English spærstān
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰel-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰlewH-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*bʰluH-yé-ti?
  4. Latinfluō
  5. Latinfluor
  6. Englishfluor
  7. Englishfluorite
  8. Middle Low Germanspar
  9. Old Englishspærstān
  10. Middle Englishsparston
  11. Englishsparstonebf.
  12. Englishspar
  13. Englishfluorspar
  14. English todayfluorescence

Coined by British physicist George Stokes in 1852 from fluorspar + -escence.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.