Number & MeasureGreek → English
Nanometer
/ˈnænoʊˌmiːtər/noun
One thousand-millionth of a metre.
The Greek roots
νᾶνος
nânos
dwarf
μέτρον
métron
measure
Literally: “dwarf measure”
The story of the word
νᾶνος meant a dwarf, and the metric system fixed the prefix at a thousand-millionth when it standardised its multipliers in 1960. A nanometre is roughly ten hydrogen atoms laid in a row; a human hair is about eighty thousand of them across. Visible light runs from about 380 to 700 nanometres, which is why the unit belongs to optics as much as to chip fabrication.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1960s
Same family
nanotechnologymetrebarometersymmetry
In a sentence
The coating is forty nanometres thick and you can see the colour shift where it thins.