The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromκρέας“flesh”
- German · borrowed fromKreosot
- English todaycreosote
From German Kreosot in the 1830s, coined in 1832 by German natural philosopher Carl Ludwig, Baron Reichenbach, from Ancient Greek κρέας (kréas, “flesh”) + σωτήρ (sōtḗr, “preserver”) for its use as an antiseptic and meat-preservative. The creosote bush was named after its scent. By surface analysis, containing creo-.
Words from the same roots
Ancient Greekκρέας all →
creatinecreatininecreaticcreo-kreo-kreophagykreotoxin
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.