The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromκάπτω“to gulp down”
- Ancient Greek · derived fromκάπτον
- German · borrowed fromAlkapton
- English todayalkapton
From German Alkapton, coined by Boedeker (1861) as "an admittedly somewhat barbaric combination" of Alkali (“alkali”) + Ancient Greek κάπτον (kápton), neuter present participle of Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”), after the tendency of alkapton to strongly react with oxygen in alkaline solution.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.