fluorescence

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-der.

Proto-Indo-European *bʰlewH-der.

Proto-Indo-European *bʰluH-yé-ti?

Latin fluō

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *-ōs

Proto-Italic *-ōs

Latin -or

Latin fluorbor.

English fluor

Proto-Indo-European *-tósder.

Ancient Greek -της (-tēs)der.

Ancient Greek -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs)der.

Latin -ītēsbor.

French -iteder.

English -ite

English fluorite

Middle Low German sparder.

Old English spærstān

Middle English sparston

English sparstonebf.

English spar

blend

English fluorspar

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti

Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁sḱeti

Proto-Italic *-ēskō

Latin -ēscō

Latin -escensder.

English -escence

English fluorescence

Coined by British physicist George Stokes in 1852 from fluorspar +‎ -escence.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /flʊˈɹɛsəns/, /flɔ-/, /floʊ-/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Homophone: florescence, in some pronunciations

Noun

fluorescence (countable and uncountable, plural fluorescences)

1. (physics) The emission of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) by a material when stimulated by the absorption of radiation or of a subatomic particle.
   • 2024 October 7, Stewart Wills, “A Deeper View of High-Speed Impacts”, in Optics & Photonics News‎^[1]:

     A multi-institution US research team has combined some creative chemistry, fluorescence microscopy and laser-driven microballistics to gain a clearer view of just what happens in a high-strain-rate impact, and to tease out the relative contribution of different kinds of energy dissipation within the target (Nat. Commun., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52663-1).

2. The light so emitted.

Derived terms

• autofluorescence
• bifluorescence
• biofluorescence
• chemifluorescence
• cryofluorescence
• cytofluorescence
• cytoimmunofluorescence
• epifluorescence
• fluoresce
• fluorescein
• fluorescence anisotropy
• fluorescence microscope
• fluorescence microscopy
• fluorescence spectroscopy
• fluorescent
• histofluorescence
• hyperfluorescence
• hypofluorescence
• immunocytofluorescence
• immunofluorescence
• macrofluorescence
• magnetofluorescence
• microfluorescence
• multifluorescence
• neurofluorescence
• nonfluorescence
• pseudofluorescence
• spectrofluorescence
• stereofluorescence
• superfluorescence
• thermofluorescence
• transfluorescence
• videofluorescence
• X-ray fluorescence

Translations

emission of light

• Afrikaans: fluoresensie
• Basque: fluoreszentzia
• Catalan: fluorescència f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 熒光 / 荧光 (jing⁴ gwong¹)

  Mandarin: 熒光 / 荧光 (zh) (yíngguāng)

• Esperanto: fluoresko
• Finnish: fluoresenssi (fi)
• French: fluorescence (fr) f
• German: Fluoreszenz (de) f
• Greek: φθορισμός (el) m (fthorismós)
• Hindi: प्रतिदीप्ति (pratidīpti)
• Indonesian: fluoresen (id)
• Japanese: 蛍光 (ja) (けいこう, keikō)
• Kazakh: әлсіз сәулелену (älsız säulelenu)
• Korean: 형광(螢光) (hyeonggwang)
• Malay: pendarfluor
• Occitan: fluorescéncia (oc) f
• Portuguese: fluorescência (pt) f
• Spanish: fluorescencia (es) f
• Vietnamese: huỳnh quang (vi)

Anagrams

• flourescence

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English fluorescence.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fly.ɔ.ʁɛ.sɑ̃s/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

fluorescence f (plural fluorescences)

1. (physics) fluorescence

Related terms

• fluorescent

See also

• phosphorescence
• luminescence
• opalescence

Further reading

• “fluorescence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012