Spectrographies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Records of light or other radiation broken into its component wavelengths, made with an instrument that separates and measures them
2. Images or readings showing how the intensity of radiation varies across its range of wavelengths, produced by a specialized analytical instrument
3. Pictures or charts recording the spectrum of emitted or absorbed light, created to reveal the chemical or physical makeup of a substance

Etymology: "Spectrographies" is the plural of "spectrography," a noun meaning the process or practice of producing and recording spectra with a spectrograph. The base word "spectrograph" combines "spectrum," borrowed from Latin "spectrum" meaning "appearance" or "image," with the Greek-derived suffix "-graph," meaning something written or recorded. The instrument itself took its name from this pairing, so the chain runs from a Latin word for a visible form, through a Greek-based combining element, to a machine that records light. The suffix "-y" attached to "graph" produces the noun for the recording technique, and the plural "-ies" marks the word as countable, referring to several such recording practices or several distinct instances of them. Each element is a familiar piece of scientific vocabulary, assembled in the same way as "photography" or "biography."

Synonyms: spectrometry, spectroscopy