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Nano- /'na-no/ is a category-neutral prefix, a loan from Latin via the international scientific community. In measure nouns like nanosecond one billionth of a second it denotes 'one billionth' (10^-9). Since the rise of nanotechnologie nanotechnology in the 1980s, the language has been enriched with words like nanodeeltjes nano-particle-DIM-s nanoparticles. In nano- formations, stress is on the prefix.


Since 1968, nano- is the official standard way to denote one billionth (10^-9) of a scientific unit, e.g. nanometer and nanofarad (see Affixes).

The prefix nano- derives ultimately from Latin nanus dwarf (see Etymologiebank). The oldest Dutch formations with nano- are complete scientific loans such as nanometer. With the rise of nanotechnology, terms like nanotechnologie nanotechnology where needed. Later, calques like nano-deeltjes nano-particle-DIM-s nanoparticles and nano-buisje nano-tube-DIM nanotube were coined to denote objects on the nanometer scale. The semantics of nano- formations is (more or less) compositional and monotonous: the meaning of the whole is a transparent function of the meanings of the constituting parts: a nanodeeltje nanoparticle is a kind of deeltje particle.

Prefixes like nano- are independent phonological words. In nouns with nano-, the prefix carries stress. Syllabification respects the morphological boundary: nano-osmose nano-osmosis, that is, nano- is a non-cohering prefix.

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Since the rise of nanotechnologie nanotechnology ("the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale", see Wikipedia), nano- has developed an extended semantics having to do with nanotechnology in formations like nanowetenschap nanoscience, nanovoedingsmiddelen nanofoods and nanosokken nanosocks socks that contain nanoparticles (to fight perspiration odors).

It might be argued that morphemes like nano- are somewhere on a cline between prefix and bound learned root, as the semantics is very specific.