this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
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Fun fact: "nuclear" ultimately comes from the Latin nucula, 'little nut'. The c and l being adjacent is the result of metathesis, similar to pronouncing "ask" as "ax".
Is that because we exist within a nut?
Or something like that, I don't know. I don't remember anything from the "the universe in a nutshell" book.
Now go further back. Where does the latin word nucula come from?
went further back lol
Latin: Nux - nut nuculus - diminutive of nut ("little nut")
Proto-Indo-European: kneu - nut
I can't find much on where the -culus suffix originated, which seams to be the the place we would want to look if trying to tie the pronunciation of nuclear to the earliest etymological root.
-ulus according to Wiktionary:
From Proto-Italic *-elos (whence Faliscan -𐌄𐌋𐌏𐌔 (-elos)), from Proto-Indo-European *-elós, thematized from Proto-Indo-European *-lós.[1] Cognate with Proto-Germanic *-ilaz and *-ulaz, whence no longer productive English -le (as in dimple and nozzle), Dutch -el, German -el.
So the PIE for little nut would be something like *knewelós
I don’t think the nuclear engineer wants the furries to know about ‘little nut’
Stop, you're gonna make me nux!
Did I ax you?