Etymology

circumnaphthalene

Today it means: One of the two products that is yielded from circumscribing naphthalene and pyrene, the other being circumpyrene. Full definition →

English naphthalene ← Latin naphtha ← Ancient Greek νάφθα (náphtha)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-
  2. Ancient Greekκίρκος (kírkos)
  3. Latincircus
  4. Latincircum
  5. Latincircum-
  6. Englishcircum-
  7. Akkadiannapṭumbor.?
  8. Old Persian*naftah
  9. Ancient Greekνάφθα (náphtha)
  10. Latinnaphtha
  11. Englishnaphth(a)
  12. Englishnaphthalene
  13. English todaycircumnaphthalene

From circum- + naphthalene.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.