Etymology

cetyl

C3E1T1Y4L1

Today it means: The univalent hexadecyl radical C₁₆H₃₃- present in many waxes. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē) ← Proto-Indo-European *swel-der.? ← Latin cētus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greekκῆτος (kêtos)
  2. Latincētus
  3. Proto-Indo-European*swel-der.?
  4. Ancient Greekῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)
  5. English todaycetyl

From Latin cētus (“whale”) + English -yl.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.