radon

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Radon,^[2][3][4][5] a name proposed by the chemist C. Schmidt in 1918.^[2] It is formed from the stem of Radium, radium, and the suffix -on of the inert gases argon, neon and xenon,^[3][5][6][2] because the element is produced by the radioactive decay of radium.^[3][6][7] That element's name was in turn formed from Latin radius (“ray, beam”) and New Latin -ium.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged describes the word itself as New Latin,^[8] and the OED compares French radon, recorded from 1924.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short-lived radioactive chemical element, one of the noble gases: 1918, in the Journal of the Chemical Society.^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also date it to 1918;^[3][5][8] Dictionary.com places it between 1915 and 1920.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The gas was known before it had this name.^[4][10] Barnhart credits its discovery in 1900 to the German physicist Friedrich Ernst Dorn,^[4] while Wilton describes a gas from thorium found in 1899 by Ernest Rutherford and Robert Owens, and the same kind of gas observed a year later by the Curies as a product of radium.^[10] It was at first called radium emanation (beside thorium emanation and actinium emanation), a name Merriam-Webster Unabridged still records.^[10][8] In 1904 William Ramsay and J. Norman Collie proposed exradio, and in 1910 Ramsay and a colleague proposed niton, from Latin niteō (“to shine”), because of the gas's glow;^[10] Etymonline notes that niton gained currency in France and Germany before radon prevailed.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also uses radon for any isotope of the element.^[8]

Timeline

• 1918 – the radioactive gaseous element formed by the decay of radium.^[2][3][5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A colourless, radioactive chemical element of the noble gas group, atomic number 86 and symbol Rn, formed by the decay of radium and other radioactive elements: They tested the basement for radon.^{[11][8][2][12]}
2. An isotope of this element.^[8]

Related words

• radium
• radius
• argon
• neon
• xenon

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "Radon", 26 July 2024
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press