Etymograph

English

nucleus

Nucleus comes from Latin nucleus ‘kernel, core’, from nux ‘nut’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *knuks.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*knuks‘nut’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnux‘nut’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEnucleus‘kernel, core’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1968same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*knuks‘nut’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnux‘nut’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEnucleus‘kernel, core’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1968same form

Earliest quotation: 1968, Norton S. Ginsburg, T’AI-PEI: “Situated in the centre of the largest agricultural basin…”

The story

The earliest uses refer to the head of a comet and the kernel of a seed, both recorded in Lexicon Technicum in 1704. The sense in atomic physics was coined by British scientist Michael Faraday in 1844 in a theoretical meaning.

Linked words

through Latin nux ‘nut’

nut, nougat, 9 more

Today it means

noun The core, central part of something, around which other elements are assembled.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *knuks / nucleus

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