Eightfold Way


noun Physics.

a scheme for classifying hadrons according to a symmetry principle based on strangeness and isotopic spin: a forerunner of the quark model.

Origin of Eightfold Way

1925–30; so named because hadrons with low mass and spin form groups of eight; with jocular allusion to the Eightfold Way of Buddhism (see Eightfold Path)