pluton

[Michael Quinion]

Ben Zimmer noted:

> A Sep. '96 post on the Usenet group sci.astro suggests that sci-fi
> writer Fred Pohl used "pluton" as a generic term for Plutolike objects
> in his 1992 novel _Mining The Oort_. Anyone know if this is the origin?

That I can't answer (it's one of the few Pohl's books I don't have on my
shelves). But Robert Heinlein used "pluton" as the name of the Earth
currency in his stories Gulf and Tunnel in the Sky.

The implication of the various pieces I've read this week is that the
committee working on the definition of "planet" created this word out of
whole cloth, though it's just the French equivalent of "Pluto" and it
already exists as an English geological term.

Searching through a British dictionary of occupational terms of 1927, I
found this: "pluton worker: moulds hot telendron (pluton), a cellulose
compound, in a press; cleans off burred surfaces and polishes finished
article". Somehow, I doubt this is the origin!

Incidentally, whatever happened to classical pronunciation? Subscribers
have been e-mailing me, puzzled over the initial "ch", and even "sh", that
broadcasters have been putting on "Charon" when reporting the story. To
say it as "Sharon" makes it sound like an Essex girl on the loose.


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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