Sometimes
I come across something in my editing that I'm pretty sure I know already but I
think, eh, you know what, I'll just look it up real fast.
And
then the extent of my wrongness HITS ME IN THE FACE WITH THE FORCE OF A DOZEN
BASEBALLS.
I've
seen "fluorescent" spelled as "florescent" occasionally,
and I figured it was a spelling-variation thing. But when the issue came up in
a novel I'm editing, I thought I'd make sure, and LO AND BEHOLD, this is what I
discovered:
fluo-res-cence (n):
luminescence that is caused by the absorption of radiation at one wavelength
followed by nearly immediate reradiation usually at a different wavelength and
that ceases almost at once when the incident radiation stops (In other words,
the light bulb kind)
flo-res-cence (n): a state or
period of flourishing
Mind.
Blown.
So
if you ever come across a text talking about a "florescent" light
bulb, that almost certainly refers not to an environmentally friendly
alternative to an incandescent light bulb, but rather to a light bulb
experiencing a period of growth and plenty in its natural habitat.
 |
| Ah, yes. Look at that beautiful florescence. |
