The Quark Is Named After a Line in Finnegans Wake
A quark is a fundamental particle of matter. Its name was taken from a nonsense word in a James Joyce novel.
A quark is a fundamental particle that combines to form protons and neutrons. Murray Gell-Mann had the sound of the word in mind before the spelling, and found the spelling in *Finnegans Wake*: 'Three quarks for Muster Mark.' The line suited him because quarks come in threes inside a proton. The six types are called flavours and their names are equally playful: up, down, strange, charm, top and bottom. There is also an unrelated German soft cheese called *Quark*.
- A fundamental particle. *Up and down quarks.*
- Flavour — the six types. *Six flavours.*
- Finnegans Wake — the source of the name. *Joyce's novel.*
- Gell-Mann — who named it. *Murray Gell-Mann.*
- Quark — a German cheese. *Quark cheese.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | quark | A quark. |
| Plural | quarks | Three quarks. |
| Property | flavour | Quark flavour. |
| Property | colour | Colour charge. |
| Named | 1964 | By Gell-Mann. |
- A proton contains three quarks.Physics.
- The name comes from Joyce.Origin.
- Quark is also a soft cheese.Other word.
The six quark flavours
- Up and down — the two that make ordinary matter
- Strange and charm — heavier, found in exotic particles
- Top and bottom — the heaviest, produced only in accelerators
- Colour charge — a property with nothing to do with visible colour
- Confinement — quarks are never found alone, always in groups
Coined by Murray Gell-Mann in 1964, spelling taken from James Joyce's *Finnegans Wake*.
Where does the word quark come from?
Murray Gell-Mann took the spelling from a line in Finnegans Wake: 'Three quarks for Muster Mark.'
Why are quark types called flavours?
Physicists chose deliberately whimsical terms. Flavour and colour in particle physics have no connection to taste or sight.