Etymology

carotene

C3A1R1O1T1E1N1E1

Today it means: A class of tetraterpene plant pigments; they vary in colour from yellow, through orange to red, this colour originating in a chain of alternating single and double bonds. Full definition →

English car(r)ot ← Middle English karette ← Middle French carotte
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greekκαρώ (karṓ)der.?
  2. Ancient Greekκαρωτόν (karōtón)
  3. Latincarōta
  4. Middle Frenchcarotte
  5. Middle Englishkarette
  6. Englishcar(r)ot
  7. English todaycarotene

From car(r)ot + -ene.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.