Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Dynamite
/ˈdaɪnəmaɪt/noun
An explosive of nitroglycerine soaked into an inert powder and moulded into sticks.
The Greek roots
δύναμις
dýnamis
power, force
Literally: “the power stuff”
Follow a root:δύναμις11 words
The story of the word
Alfred Nobel patented the mixture in 1867 and built the name from δύναμις with the -ite ending chemists were using for minerals. Nitroglycerine on its own had killed his younger brother Emil in a factory blast three years earlier; absorbing it into porous earth made it safe enough to carry up a mountain. The fortune it earned paid for the prizes.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1867
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
dynamicdynamodynastyaerodynamics
In a sentence
They cleared the last of the rock with dynamite and finished the tunnel that autumn.