-tron
- a combining form extracted from electron, used with nouns or combining forms, principally in the names of electron tubes (ignitron; klystron; magnetron) and of devices for accelerating subatomic particles (cosmotron; cyclotron); also, more generally, in the names of any kind of chamber or apparatus used in experiments (biotron).
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Origin of -tron
by initial shortening of electron, with perhaps accidental allusion to the Gk instrumental suffix -tron, as in árotron plough
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
-tron
- indicating a vacuum tubemagnetron
- indicating an instrument for accelerating atomic or subatomic particlessynchrotron
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Word Origin
from Greek, suffix indicating instrument
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for -tron
as a word-forming element in new compounds formed in physics, 1939, abstracted from electron (Greek -tron was an instrumentive suffix).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper