Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Phosphor
/ˈfɒsfər/noun
A substance that glows when struck by radiation or an electron beam.
The Greek roots
φῶς
phôs
light
φέρειν
phérein
to carry, bear
Literally: “light-bearer”
The story of the word
Φωσφόρος was the Greek name for the morning star, the planet Venus seen before dawn, and Latin translated it exactly as Lucifer. Hennig Brand, hunting the philosopher's stone in Hamburg in 1669, boiled down large quantities of urine and got a white waxy solid that glowed in the dark, so the old star name went to the new element. The word then split: phosphorus is the element, phosphor is the coating that made television screens and fluorescent tubes light up.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
phosphorusphotographChristophermetaphor
In a sentence
The old monitor's green phosphor left a faint ghost of the cursor.
White LEDs are blue chips with a yellow phosphor over them.