actinobolism

English

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin actinobolismus, from Koine Greek ἀκτινοβόλος (aktinobólos, “emission of rays”) + -ismus. Ἀκτινοβόλος is from ἀκτίς (aktís, “ray”) + βόλος (bólos, “a throw”). First attested in the 1650s.

Noun

actinobolism (uncountable)

1. (Late Modern, obsolete) Radiation; emission or projection. [17th–18th c.]
   • 1654, Walter Charleton, A Fabrick of Science Natural, upon the Hypothesis of Atoms […], page 210:

     Here is the only difference betwixt the Actinobolism of Light and Sounds; that the one is performed in time imperceptible, though not instantaneous: the other in moments distinguishable, which are more or less according to the degrees of distance betwixt the sonant and audient.

Usage notes

• Several 19th-century sources relate the term actinobolism, along with irradiation, to hypnotism.