| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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8. Word Formation: Plurals, Possessives, Affixes, and Compounds
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| § 50. thermo- |
| The prefix thermo- comes from Greek thermos, meaning “warm, hot.” When used to form words in English, thermo- generally refers to heat, as in thermodynamic, or sometimes to thermoelectricity, as in thermocouple. Most of the words that begin with thermo-, such as thermodynamics, thermoelectricity, thermostat, and thermosphere, have only come into being in the 19th and 20th centuries. Sometimes before a vowel thermo- becomes therm-, as in thermanesthesia, which means “inability to feel hot or cold.” | 1 |
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| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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