English
photon
From photo- + -on.
Formed from photo- + -on
Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- ‘to shine, glow light’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂os
Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos
Ancient Greek φᾰ́ος ‘light’
Ancient Greek φῶς ‘light’
English photo-
The story
Coined by American physicist Leonard Troland in 1916 as a unit of light hitting the retina, and later popularized in a more modern sense by Gilbert N.
Today it means
noun The quantum of light and other electromagnetic energy, regarded as a discrete particle having zero rest mass, no electric charge, and an indefinitely long lifetime. It is a gauge boson.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / photon