endmember
|end-mem-ber|
🇺🇸
/ˈɛndˌmɛmbər/
🇬🇧
/ˈendˌmɛmbə/
pure component at an extreme
Etymology
'endmember' is a modern English compound formed from the words 'end' and 'member', coined in technical fields to denote a component at the 'end' of a series.
'endmember' was formed in the 20th century as a compound of English 'end' (Old English 'end') and 'member' (from Old French 'membre', Latin 'membrum'), and was adopted into scientific vocabulary (mineralogy, materials science) to describe extreme compositional components.
Initially a literal compound meaning 'a member at the end', it evolved into a technical term meaning 'a pure or idealized component at an extreme of a compositional or spectral mixture'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a chemically pure or compositionally fixed component at one extreme of a solid-solution or compositional series (used in mineralogy, petrology, and materials science).
In phase diagrams, the olivine endmembers forsterite and fayalite mark the compositional extremes.
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Noun 2
a pure spectral or signal signature used as a basis in unmixing models (e.g., remote sensing, spectral unmixing, chemometrics) — a reference component representing an idealized end member of a mixture.
Spectral unmixing requires selecting appropriate endmembers for vegetation, soil, and water.
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Last updated: 2025/09/28 03:15