Eightfold Way

American  

noun

Physics.

1. a scheme for classifying hadrons according to a symmetry principle based on strangeness and isotopic spin: a forerunner of the quark model.

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Etymology

Origin of Eightfold Way

1925–30; so named because hadrons with low mass and spin form groups of eight; with jocular allusion to the Eightfold Way of Buddhism ( see Eightfold Path)