Etymology

ultraviolet catastrophe

Today it means: A fault in classical physics, from the Rayleigh's law/Rayleigh-Jeans law outcomes at short wavelengths/high frequencies, that causes infinite amplification of shorter wavelength/higher frequency radiation inside a cavity, due to the application of equipartition theorem on black body radiation within a cavity. Full definition →

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The story

Coined by Paul Ehrenfest in 1911 in German. Ultraviolet represents that end of the spectrum, given that the visible spectrum represents a stand-in for the whole electromagnetic spectrum, and infrared and ultraviolet are stand-ins for the endpoints. This usage is similar to that represented by the logic behind the terms "redshift" and "blueshift", which assume endpoints of red and blue.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.