In science, an experiment that fails to produce the expected outcome is described as a null result. The origin of this term is explained in Wikipedia as “a translation of the scientific Latin nullus resultarum, meaning 'no consequence'."
This is obviously wrong, but it is repeated in numerous other places around the web, without any correction. Do you think that someone tried to give “null result” a dignified etymology? The English phrase doesn’t really need an origin story, after all – it’s perfectly acceptable to use ‘null’ as an attributive adjective.
This is obviously wrong, but it is repeated in numerous other places around the web, without any correction. Do you think that someone tried to give “null result” a dignified etymology? The English phrase doesn’t really need an origin story, after all – it’s perfectly acceptable to use ‘null’ as an attributive adjective.