Silicon
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Root
seka
to cut, to slice, to cut up
Silicon descends through Latin silex to *sek-, matching Shona seka, to cut
- Confidence
- 54/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- siliconEnglish
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative linguistics derives silicon from Latin silex, stem silic-, "flint, hard stone", plus the -on ending coined by Thomas Thomson in 1817 on the model of boron and carbon. The origin of silex itself is disputed, often treated as substrate or of unknown origin, and no Bantu connection is recognised.
The working behind this.
The full descent — 7 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.
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