Final answer:
Greek and Latin are the most likely sources for new terms in the physical sciences due to their historical prevalence in scholarly communication and the precision they lend to scientific nomenclature.
Step-by-step explanation:
New scientific terms in the physical sciences are most likely to be coined from Greek or Latin. Although English, French, and other modern languages contribute to scientific nomenclature to some degree, it is the rich history and precise nature of Greek and Latin that have made them the foundational languages for the coining of new terms.
It's important to recognize that for centuries, the educated classes communicated in Latin and Greek. These languages provided a common ground for scholars across different regions to understand each other. For example, the metric system units use prefixes like mega derived from the Greek word meaning "great" to signify the size of units. Similarly, the systematic nomenclature in biology, such as the taxonomic name Haloquadratum walsbyi, uses Latin and Greek roots to describe unique characteristics of organisms. Latin and Greek have remained significant in academic and scientific communities for their universal recognition and the ease they provide in cross-cultural scientific communication.