Acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation — coined around 1960, modeled on earlier 'maser.'
A device that emits a narrow, intense beam of coherent light through stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation.
An acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Coined by Gordon Gould in 1957 (in his notebook) and independently by others, modeled on the earlier acronym 'maser' (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, coined 1955). The underlying physics was described by Albert Einstein in 1917 in his paper on stimulated emission. Each component word has its own deep etymology — 'light' from PIE *lewk- (brightness
The word 'laser' is one of the most successful acronyms in history — so successful that most people forget it stands for 'Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.' It has even produced a back-formation verb: 'to lase' means 'to emit laser light,' a word that was reverse-engineered from the acronym.