Newton
new·ton
noun
English mathematician and physicist; remembered for developing the calculus and for his law of gravitation and his three laws of motion (1642-1727)
Origin
Inherited from Middle English Neweton, from Old English nēowa tūn (“new town”). Compare same construction in Italian Napoli (“Naples”) and in Arabic نَابُلُس (nābulus, “Nablus”). The unexpected Early Modern pronunciation with /ɛʊ̯/ instead of /ɪʊ̯/, as securely attested in Richard Hodges' 1644 English Primrose and confirmed by obsolete Welsh Newtwnn, is due to trisyllabic shortening in Old English nēowa tūn or Middle English Neweton.
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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.