neon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Neon signs or lights, collectively.

   Bring a song and a smile for the banjo Better get while the getting's good Hitch a ride to the end of the highway Where the neons turn to wood.

2. 2
   noun

   a colorless odorless gaseous element that give a red glow in a vacuum tube

3. 3
   noun

   The chemical element (symbol Ne) with an atomic number of 10. The second of the noble gases, it is a colourless, odorless inert gas.

4. 4
   noun

   A form or sample of the element.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Neon was named in 1898 by its discoverers, William Ramsay and M. W. Travers. Its name is the Greek word for “new thing,” from the same source as the English prefix neo-, denoting something new or revived.

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek νέον (néon), neuter of νέος (néos, “new”), from earlier *νέϝος (*néwos), from Proto-Hellenic *newos, from Proto-Indo-European *néwos. By surface analysis, neo- + -on (suffix used in all noble gases).

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary