Etymology

biomolecule

B3I1O1M3O1L1E1C3U1L1E1

Today it means: Molecules, such as amino acids, sugars, nucleic acids, proteins, polysaccharides, DNA, and RNA, that occur naturally in living organisms; any such molecule, even if created outside a living thing (as for example in a test tube or bioreactor). Full definition →

English molecule ← French molécule ← New Latin mōlēcula
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
  2. Ancient Greekβῐ́ος (bĭ́os)
  3. Ancient Greekβῐο- (bĭo-)
  4. Englishbio-
  5. Latinmōlēs
  6. New Latinmōlēcula
  7. Frenchmolécule
  8. Englishmolecule
  9. English todaybiomolecule

From bio- + molecule.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.