A highly reactive chemical element that glows in the dark and is essential for life processes. It literally means 'light-bearer' because early forms appeared to carry or emit light.
From Greek 'phos' (light) + 'phoros' (bearing), meaning 'light-bearing.' The Greeks named it for its property of glowing in darkness, as it literally carries or bears light. The word passed into Latin as 'phosphorus' and then directly into English in the 17th century.
Phosphorus shares its 'bearing' nature with euphoria and dysphoria - while phosphorus bears light, euphoria bears good feelings and dysphoria bears difficult ones. All these words show how Greek speakers thought of emotions and properties as things that are 'carried' or 'borne' by people or substances!
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