Mysteries of vernacular: X-ray - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

词源揭秘：X-ray — 杰茜卡·奥列克和雷切尔·蒂尔

翻译人员: Yixiong Zhu 校对人员: Geoff Chen

Mysteries of vernacular:

词源揭秘：

X-ray,

X-ray，

a form of electromagnetic radiation

一种能够穿透固体的

capable of penetrating solids.

电磁辐射。

The word X-ray harkens back

“X-ray”一词可以追溯到

to the work of Rene Descartes,

笛卡尔的著作。

a French philosopher,

笛卡尔是17世纪法国哲学家，

mathematician,

数学家，

and writer in the 17th century.

和作家。

One of Descartes innumerable contributions

笛卡尔在数学界的

to the world of numbers

众多贡献之一是

was the invention of a simple yet brilliant convention

发明了一个简洁而好用的惯例，

most people take for granted today:

一个大多数人今日习以为常的惯例，

the representation of unknowns

那就是在方程式中用

within an equation as X, Y, and Z.

X，Y，Z来代表未知量。

When the German scientist Wilhelm Rontgen

当德国科学家伦琴

discovered what we now call X-rays

在19世纪发现了我们现在

in the late 19th century,

所称的“X-ray”之后，

he gave them the name X-strahlen.

他给它起名叫“X-strahlen”。

Strahlen is German for shine,

“Strahlen”是德语照射的意思，

and X, of course, represented the unknown nature

而X，自然就是指伦琴发现的这种辐射

of the radiation Rontgen had discovered,

的未知属性。

the X-factor, so to speak.

X因子，也可以这么说。

The English translation maintained the X

英文翻译保留了“X”，

but replaced the German shine with ray,

但将德语“shine”换成了“ray”，

meaning a beam of light.

意思是一束光。

Coincidentally, in mathematics,

巧合的是，数学中，

the word ray refers to a line

“ray”指的是直线，

with a point of origin that has no end

有起点而无尽头，

and extends to infinity,

延伸至无穷，

bringing us neatly back to the unknown.

这就又把我们带回了未知中。

Today we understand what X-radiation is,

今天，我们明白了X光是什么，

and in spite of the humble objections

而在其发现者谦虚的

of its discoverer,

反对声中，

it is also commonly called Rontgen Radiation,

X光又被叫做伦琴射线，

eliminating with the X

不再有X，

the fundamental mystery of its nature.

它的属性对我们也不再神秘。