Introduction

This article presents an analysis of the features of etymology, the lexical meanings of words related to nuclear power, which is one of the most evolving in the modern world. Today, nuclear power is a reliable and cost-effective way to provide the country with electricity. Nowadays, there are more than 200 enterprises whose specialists are working to improve the nuclear power industry in Russia. Russia is making great achievements in this direction: it is developing new reactor models and gradually expanding production. According to the participants of the World Nuclear Association, the strength of Russia is the development of technologies on fast neurons. Russian technologies, many of which were developed by “Rosatom”, are highly valued abroad. Russian and foreign experts use the terminology of nuclear physics in scientific and business communication, which has made it necessary to conduct an etymological analysis of terms and terminological combinations in this field.

A term is a word that is the name of a certain concept or object of a special field of science and technology.

A terminological combination is a combination of words that are used to name an object or concept.

The etymological analysis is the clarification of the previously existing morphological structure of the word, its past derivational connections and the definition of the source and time of appearance of the word, the establishment of the method of its formation from the corresponding generating basis.

Methodology

In the course of etymological analysis of English terms and terminological combinations of the field of nuclear physics, several scientific articles (in the amount of 3) of this field were selected. Then a selection of English terms and terminological combinations was made. A search was carried out for selected 30 terms and terminological combinations in online etymological dictionaries (were used 2 dictionaries).

Practical part

The following etymological online dictionaries were used to analyze the origin:

Online Etymology Dictionary - https://www.etymonline.com

English-Russian and Russian-English Multitran dictionary - https://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?&l1=1&l2=2&CL=1&a=0

The selection of English terms and terminological combinations was made from the following scientific and technical articles:

«Distribution of Moons in the Solar System» (2015) - https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/distribution-of-moons-in-the-solar-system-2329-6542-1000120.php?aid=65162

«Hypercentral Constituent Quark Model with a Meson Cloud» (2007) - https://dochot.net/document/hypercentral-constituent-quark-model-with-a-meson-cloud

«Nuclear energy» - https://dochot.net/document/nuclear-energy-mrY5qnN

It was revealed that out of 30 terms and terminological units selected from special texts, 14 terms come from French, 7 from Latin, 6 from Greek, 6 from English, 3 from Italian and 1 from Indian (diagram 1):

1. Accelerator (L)
2. Alpha (G) ray (O/F)
3. Annihilation (M/F)
4. Antineutrino (I)
5. Antiparticle (L)
6. Atom (G)
7. Atomic (G) mass (O/F)
8. Background (E) radiation (M/F)
9. Baryon (E)
10. Blackbody (O/E) radiation (M/F)
11. Boson (In)
12. Cyclotron (M/L)
13. Cyclotron (M/L) frequency (L)
14. Isomer (E)
15. Neutron (It)
16. Nuclear (F) binding (E) energy (L)
17. Nuclear (F) reactor (L)
18. Nucleon (F)
19. Nucleus (F)
20. Photon (G)
21. Photomultiplier (G)
22. Proton (G)
23. Quark (E)
24. Rad (Radiation (M/F) Absorbed (It) Dose (O/F)) 
25. Radioisotope (M/F)
26. Radionuclide (M/F)
27. Secular (O/F) equilibrium (L)
28. Thermal (F) energy (L)
29. Transmutation (O/F)
30. Ultraviolet (E) radiation (M/F)

Results

Сonclusion

In the course of this work, a study was conducted on the origin of the terms of nuclear physics in modern English. An etymological analysis of terms and terminological combinations was done. Of the 30 terms chosen, 37.2% of the terms come from the French language, 18.9% from the Latin language, 16.2% from the Greek language, 16.2% from the English language, and 10.8% from other languages. This study is relevant in the modern world, as the terminology of nuclear physics is widely used to build relations between specialists from different fields and countries. The analysis of terminological units revealed a heterogeneous origin; namely, in terminological combinations originate from French, English and Latin. The study showed that most of the borrowed English words and phrases being analyzed are of French origin, which is associated with historical features and geographical location. Concluding, we can say that only 1/6 part is of English origin, and the rest of the words are borrowed from other languages. Given the above, it can be concluded that most of the words used in the field of nuclear physics are borrowed.

Literature

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Radiation_astronomy/Protons

https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/distribution-of-moons-in-the-solar-system-2329-6542-1000120.php?aid=65162

https://dochot.net/document/hypercentral-constituent-quark-model-with-a-meson-cloud

https://dochot.net/document/nuclear-energy-mrY5qnN

https://www.etymonline.com

https://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?&l1=1&l2=2&CL=1&a=0