Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Ion
/ˈaɪən/noun
An atom or molecule carrying an electric charge.
The Greek roots
ἰόν
ión
going, that which goes
Literally: “going thing”
Follow a root:ἰόν4 words
The story of the word
Faraday needed names for whatever moved through an electrolyte and wrote to William Whewell for help. Whewell sent back ion, anion and cation in 1834, all built on the Greek verb for going. The prepositions still record direction: cations travel down to the cathode, anions up to the anode.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1834
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
anioncationionosphere
In a sentence
Sodium loses an electron and becomes a positive ion.