neutrino

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian neutrino,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} coined in 1933 by the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi,^{[3][4][7][8][5]} in the journal “La Ricerca Scientifica”.^[2] It is formed from Italian neutro (“neutral, neuter”) + -ino (“diminutive suffix”), "little neutral one",^[5][3][2][9] and the Italian adjective, recorded from 1397, is from Latin neuter.^[2][5] Barnhart, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Klein instead form it from neutrone (“neutron”) and the diminutive suffix,^[4][6][8] the American Heritage Dictionary says that Fermi modelled it on neutrone, taken as the augmentative of neutro,^[5] and the OED says it was perhaps formed after neutrone.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Klein take the Italian neutrone from English neutron.^[6][8] The suffix goes back to Latin -īnus.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An uncharged particle much smaller than the neutron: 1934, in the New York Times of 8 March.^[2][3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The 1989 edition of the OED described two neutrinos, associated with the electron and the muon, with zero or negligible mass,^[10] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise speaks of two forms and a particle believed to be massless.^[6] The OED's revision of 2003 counts three, associated with the electron, the muon and the tau lepton, with very little mass,^[2] and Collins allows very small or possibly zero rest mass.^[11]

Timeline

• 1934 – in English, an uncharged particle with little or no mass.^[2][3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (physics) Each of three stable, uncharged leptons, associated with the electron, the muon and the tau particle, which have very little mass and hardly interact with matter.^[2][11][1]

Word family

• neutrinoless
• antineutrino
• electron neutrino
• muon neutrino
• neutrino astronomy
• tau neutrino

Related words

• neutro-
• neutron
• neuter
• neutral

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins