radioactif

Forms

radioactif (feminine radioactive, masculine plural radioactifs, feminine plural radioactives)^[1] Also written radio-actif, a spelling the GLLF and the TLFi still list.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French radio- + actif, radio- standing for “radiation”.^[2][4][5] The combining form is from Latin radius (“ray”),^[1][6] and actif is actif, from Latin āctīvus.^[1][7] Etymonline and Wiktionary credit the word to Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898.^[6][1] The TLFi dates it to 1898 in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences, while the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert give 1896;^[2][4][5] the GLLF's first record is in Larousse in 1904.^[3] Picoche places it, with radioactivité, at the end of the 19th century in the family of Latin agō.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences of 1898, describes substances that give off radiation of themselves.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word was coined for a property of matter and stayed a term of physics: it describes a body whose unstable nuclei change into another element while giving off particles or rays, and by extension anything that has to do with radioactivity.^[2][5] The noun radioactivité was formed at the same time from radio- and activité.^[2][4]

In the 20th century, with nuclear weapons and reactors, it entered everyday language in phrases such as déchets radioactifs and retombées radioactives.^[5][9] English took it as radioactive in 1898, from the French word.^[6]

Timeline

• 1898 – Recorded in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences; the noun radioactivité appears the same year.^[2]
• 1898 – English borrows it as radioactive.^[6]
• 1904 – Larousse records radio-actif.^[3]
• 1935 – The Académie française records it.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (physics) Showing radioactivity: said of a body whose unstable nuclei decay into another element while giving off radiation: un isotope radioactif, de l’uranium radioactif.^[2][5]
2. Having to do with or produced by radioactivity: des déchets radioactifs, des retombées radioactives.^[5][9]

Related words

• radioactivité
• actif
• radioélément
• Latin radius
• English radioactive

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)