Nuclear black bean noodles

The History of ‘Nuclear Family’ Getting at the core of it. Nuclear family refers to the core members of a family, usually parents and children. Nuclear had a long history of figurative use before its main association with “nuclear energy,” as nucleus has senses meaning “kernel” or more simply “something essential. Nuclear families—the term refers to a family group that consists only of parents and children—are nuclear but in a sense of that word that’s now much less common than today’s most common nuclear black bean noodles of nuclear.

It has nothing to do with melting down. Origin of ‘Nuclear Family’ Nuclear family dates to the 1920s, when the academic fields of anthropology and sociology were both still young. The Oxford English Dictionary cites Bronisław Malinowski, considered a founder of social anthropology, as the coiner of the term. At the time nuclear family was coined, the word nuclear inhabited contexts other than those most familiar to us now. Its use was broad and tied, as it still is, closely to uses of its parent word, nucleus, which had been a member of the language for 250 years. Many Uses of ‘Nucleus’ and ‘Nuclear’ Tracing the development of the word nucleus in the Oxford English Dictionary, we see that it was first applied in English in the mid-late 17th century to the brightest mass of matter in the head of a comet.

Its origin is New Latin, from Latin nucleus, meaning “kernel. The nuclear in nuclear family is figurative, and it comes from an extension of those varied scientific applications of nucleus. In addition to the astronomy, botany, and other technical applications, nucleus has also since the mid-18th century meant simply “a basic or essential part,” with many examples of the term describing people considered core to some organization or effort. Here are some of the words we’re currently looking at for a spot in the dictionary. Get Word of the Day daily email!

Subscribe to America’s largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Editor Emily Brewster clarifies the difference. An old-fashioned rule we can no longer put up with. Fourteen words that helped define the year. Learn a new word every day. The History of ‘Nuclear Family’ Getting at the core of it. Nuclear family refers to the core members of a family, usually parents and children.