Italian diminutive of neutrone 'neutron,' coined by Fermi to mean 'little neutral one' after the neutron's name was taken.
A subatomic particle with no charge and nearly zero mass that rarely interacts with matter, produced in nuclear reactions.
Coined by Enrico Fermi as an Italian diminutive of neutrone 'neutron,' literally 'little neutral one.' Wolfgang Pauli had postulated the particle in 1930 and called it a 'neutron,' but when James Chadwick discovered the actual neutron in 1932, Fermi suggested neutrino to avoid confusion. Key roots: *ne- (Proto-Indo-European: "not"), *uter (Latin: "either (of two)").