Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Argon
/ˈɑːrɡɒn/noun
A colourless, chemically inert gas, element 18, making up about one per cent of the atmosphere.
The Greek roots
ἀργός
argós
idle, not working
ἔργον
érgon
work
Literally: “the lazy one”
The story of the word
Rayleigh and Ramsay isolated the gas in 1894 and named it for what it refused to do: ἀργόν is the neuter of ἀργός, idle, itself a contraction of ἀ-εργός, not working. Argon will not combine with anything under ordinary conditions, which is exactly why it fills light bulbs and shields the weld pool in arc welding. The ἔργον inside it also sits in energy, ergonomics, and surgery, which is χειρουργία, hand-work.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1894
Same family
energyergonomicssynergylethargy
In a sentence
The welder ran a bead under a shield of argon so the metal would not oxidise.