Etymology

chemotaxis

C3H4E1M3O1T1A1X8I1S1

Today it means: The movement of a cell or an organism in response to a chemical stimulant. Full definition →

English taxis ← New Latin chēmīa ← Ancient Greek χυμείᾱ (khumeíā)influ.
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰew-
  2. Ancient Greekχῠ́μᾰ (khŭ́mă)
  3. Ancient Greekχυμείᾱ (khumeíā)
  4. Arabicالْكِيمِيَاء (al-kīmiyāʔ)
  5. Medieval Latinalchēmia
  6. Ancient Greekχυμείᾱ (khumeíā)influ.
  7. New Latinchēmīa
  8. Englishchemo-
  9. Englishtaxis
  10. English todaychemotaxis

From chemo- + taxis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.