Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “spectrophotometer” come from?

Spectrophotometer combines English spectrum from Latin specio meaning "to look" and English photometer from Ancient Greek μέτρον meaning "measure," both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European speḱ- and -trom.

spectrophotometer (English): An instrument used to measure the intensity of...

Definitions

  1. An instrument used to measure the intensity of...

Ancestry of “spectrophotometer”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishphotometerAny of several instruments used to measure...
2English-meterUsed to form the names of measuring devices
3Frenchmètremetre/meter; first-person singular present...
4Latinmetruma measure
5Ancient Greekμέτρονsomething used to measure: measure, rule, weight;...
6Ancient Greek-τρονForms instrument nouns
7Proto-Hellenic-tronForms instrument nouns from verb stems
8Proto-Indo-European-tromForms nouns denoting a tool or instrument
9Proto-Indo-European-tḗrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...

Words derived from “spectrophotometer”

  • microspectrophotometer
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tḗr →