non-endmember
|non-end-mem-ber|
🇺🇸
/ˌnɑnˈɛndˌmɛmbər/
🇬🇧
/ˌnɒnˈendˌmembə/
not a pure component
Etymology
'non-endmember' originates from the prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non', meaning 'not') combined with the technical compound 'endmember' (modern English technical coinage combining 'end' + 'member'), where 'non-' marked negation of the technical term.
'endmember' arose as a technical term in fields like geology, chemistry, and remote sensing to mean a pure component or extreme member of a mixing set; later the negated form 'non-endmember' was formed by adding the Latin-derived prefix 'non-' to indicate elements that are not endmembers.
Initially the component term 'endmember' designated a pure or extreme constituent; 'non-endmember' has straightforwardly retained the negative sense and came to be used specifically for mixed or intermediate observations in spectral unmixing contexts.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a constituent (for example, a pixel or spectrum) that is not an endmember — i.e., not a pure component or pure spectral signature — commonly used in remote sensing and spectral unmixing to refer to mixed or intermediate observations.
Most pixels in the satellite image were non-endmembers rather than pure endmembers.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/12/27 10:41