Quizzically Yours

X coined the term ___ from the Latin for "broken" and is used to refer to "a rough or fragmented shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole". He passed away recently. He had actually built on and popularised the work done by Y under whom he studied early in his life. Y was involved in World War I and lost his nose in the a fight. After unsuccessful attempts to rejoin the nose, he resigned to wearing a mask for the rest of his life.

Identifying X and the word would do .

manish cracks this

The guy is Benoit Mandelbrot and the word is fractal. FYI, Y is Gaston Julia.