Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Mid-century: TV and science ·1968
Pulsar
pulsating star
- Meaning
- A highly magnetised, rapidly rotating neutron star that emits regular pulses of radiation.
- Source words
- pulsating + star
- Coined by
- The Daily Telegraph
- Year
- 1968
Background
Coined by the *Telegraph*'s science correspondent Anthony Michaelis, at a time when radio-astronomy discoveries were being announced faster than astronomers could name them. "Quasar" (quasi-stellar) had set the -ar template a year earlier.
Mid-century: TV and science
Two engines dominated: television (sitcom, televangelist) and post-war big science (pulsar, transistor). Many mid-century coinages came from scientific style sheets and industry journals.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.