Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Tachometer
/tæˈkɒmɪtər/noun
An instrument showing rotational speed, usually in revolutions per minute.
The Greek roots
ταχύς
takhýs
swift, rapid
μέτρον
métron
measure
Literally: “speed measure”
The story of the word
Bryan Donkin built and named one in 1810; the version on a car dashboard is a century younger. Takhýs is the root behind tachycardia, a racing heart, and tachygraphy, the shorthand ancient scribes used to keep up with speech. Gerald Feinberg reached for it again in 1967 to name the tachyon, a particle that would outrun light and has never turned up.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1810
Same family
tachycardiatachyontachygraphy
In a sentence
Keep the tachometer under three thousand until the engine warms up.