Microprobe

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device used to examine and analyze very small areas of a material for composition and properties
2. An apparatus designed to investigate the fine details of tiny samples often through electron or ion beams
3. A tool that allows detailed study and measurement of microscopic regions within a specimen

Etymology: The word is a compound of two pieces with quite different histories. "Micro-" comes from the Ancient Greek "mīkrós," meaning "small," and entered English as a combining form that can be attached to almost any noun to mean "very small" or "one millionth part." "Probe" is older and more physical: it descends from Latin "proba," a test or trial, and in English it first meant a surgeon's slender instrument for exploring a wound before it became a general word for any tool used to investigate something hidden. Put together, a microprobe is a probe for very small things. Instruments of this kind focus a fine beam onto a tiny spot of a sample and read the signals that come back, so the scientist learns what elements are present and in what proportions, one speck at a time. The device takes the old surgical idea of gently testing an unseen interior and shrinks its target down to the scale of a grain.