Etymologically
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plasma

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈplæz.mə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin plasma (“a mould, image”),[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek πλάσμα (plásma, “something moulded or created”),[2][3][5] from πλάσσω (plássō, “to mould, shape”) (see plaster),[2][3][6] originally “to spread thin”, from Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“flat, to spread”).[3] It is a more classical form of earlier plasm, a mould (1620).[2][3] Merriam-Webster takes the modern word through German.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Form, mould, shape, a sense now obsolete: 1712;[2][3][7] Merriam-Webster gives a first use of 1577.[6]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word also meant an image, a counterfeit and an affected style.[3] A green variety of quartz was called plasma from 1772.[7][4] The liquid part of blood or lymph, apparently seen as the matter from which blood is formed, is first recorded in 1845,[2][7][3] and the physics sense, an ionized gas with a balance of positive ions and electrons, in 1928.[2][7][3] Compounds such as plasma arc are from 1958.[7]

Timeline

  • 1577 – plasma.[6]
  • 1712 – form, shape.[2][7]
  • 1772 – a green quartz.[7]
  • 1845 – the liquid part of blood.[2][7]
  • 1928 – ionized gas (physics).[2][7]
  • 1958 – plasma arc.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The clear, yellowish fluid part of blood or lymph, in which the cells are suspended.
  2. Sterilized blood plasma, used in transfusions.
  3. (physics) A hot ionized gas of nuclei and electrons, sometimes regarded as a fourth state of matter.
  4. A former name for protoplasm or cytoplasm.
  5. A green, partly translucent variety of quartz.

Word family

  • plasmatic
  • mycoplasma
  • phytoplasma
  • plasmablast
  • plasmacyte
  • plasmalemma
  • plasmapause
  • plasmasphere

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press