Origin of the word 'quark'
Murray Gell-Mann, physicist, assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental
constituents of the nucleon back in 1963. Further details are found in his
book The Quark and the Jaguar published in paperback in 1995.
The Quark and the Jaguar
>From Page 180:
In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental
constituents of the
nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have
been "kwork".
Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James
Joyce, I came
across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark".
Since "quark"
(meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to
rhyme with "Mark,"
as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to
pronounce it as
"kwork". But the book represents the dream of a publican named Humphrey
Chimpden
Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources
at once, like the
"portmanteau" words in "Through the Looking Glass". From time to time,
phrases occur
in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the
bar. I argued,
therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry "Three
quarks for Muster
Mark" might be "Three quarts for Mister Mark," in which case the
pronunciation
"kwork" would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three
fitted perfectly
the way quarks occur in nature.
Finnegans Wake
-- Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he hasn't got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark.
But O, Wreneagle Almighty, wouldn't un be a sky of a lark
To see that old buzzard whooping about for uns shirt in the dark
And he hunting round for uns speckled trousers around by Palmer- stown
Park?
Hohohoho, moulty Mark!
You're the rummest old rooster ever flopped out of a Noah's ark
And you think you're cock of the wark.
Fowls, up! Tristy's the spry young spark
That'll tread her and wed her and bed her and red her
Without ever winking the tail of a feather
And that's how that chap's going to make his money and mark!
Overhoved, shrillgleescreaming. That song sang seaswans.
Ernest Slyman
http://www.geocities.com/soho/7514/
email: [log in to unmask]
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