Heinrich Hertz

1 6.9

German scientist who first made and detected radio waves

proper noun
/ˈhaɪnriːk hɜrts/

: Heinrich Hertz

In his experiments, Heinrich Hertz succeeded in generating and detecting electromagnetic waves.

Examples

The work of Heinrich Hertz laid the foundation for modern wireless communication.
Many scientific terms and units are named after Heinrich Hertz in honor of his groundbreaking work.
The contributions of Heinrich Hertz revolutionized the field of physics and wireless communication.
Did Heinrich Hertz really prove Maxwell's theories?
In his experiments, Heinrich Hertz succeeded in generating and detecting electromagnetic waves.
Many scientific terms and units are named after Heinrich Hertz in honor of his groundbreaking work.
The contributions of Heinrich Hertz revolutionized the field of physics and wireless communication.

Surface Forms

Heinrich Hertz main

Morphology

Heinrich + Hertz

This is a proper name referring to a specific historical person; the biographical/encyclopedic information (German physicist who discovered electromagnetic waves) is not derivable from the constituent name parts 'Heinrich' and 'Hertz'. Proper names do not follow compositional semantics, so a B1 learner who only knows the words will not infer the MWE's meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

Heinrich Hertz was a German physicist who first made and detected invisible radio waves in his laboratory. Because he showed that electricity can travel in waves, his name was given to the unit 'hertz', which tells how many 'cycles per second' a wave has.