Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Metallography
/ˌmɛtəˈlɒɡrəfi/noun
The study of the internal structure of metals, chiefly by polishing, etching and examining a surface under a microscope.
The Greek roots
μέταλλον
métallon
mine, metal
γράφειν
gráphein
to write, record
Literally: “writing about metals”
The story of the word
The word first meant simply a treatise about metals, in the era when writing one was the only way to record what was known. Henry Clifton Sorby changed that in Sheffield in the 1860s by polishing steel, etching it with acid and putting it under a microscope, which showed the grain structure that decides whether a steel is brittle or tough. Failure investigators still work that way, with better optics and a saw.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → modern coinage → English
Same family
metallurgymetalloidgeography
In a sentence
Metallography on the fractured bolt showed the crack started at a forging fold.