I have often wondered about the suffix "tron," having seen it in various words here and there, such as cyclotron, betatron, electronic, thyrotron, klystron, and mellotron (which was a cool instrument used by the Beatles that played tape loops of other instruments -- a sort of primitive sampler). There was also an animated film "Tron," which solidified in my mind the corny 1950's-science-fiction connotation of the word. I finally looked it up and discoverd that tron comes from the Greek for instrument.


Main Entry: -tron
Function: noun suffix
Etymology: Greek, suffix denoting an instrument; akin to Old English -thor, suffix denoting an instrument, Latin -trum
1 : vacuum tube <magnetron>
2 : device for the manipulation of subatomic particles <cyclotron>