Etymology

cytosine

C3Y4T1O1S1I1N1E1

Today it means: A heterocyclic base, 4-aminopyrimidin-2(1H)-one, which pairs with guanine in DNA and RNA (by means of three hydrogen bonds). Full definition →

German Cytosin ← Ancient Greek κύτος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromκύτος
  2. German · borrowed fromCytosin
  3. English todaycytosine

After German Cytosin, equivalent to Ancient Greek κύτος (kútos) + -ine. Cytosine was discovered and named by the German biochemists Albrecht Kossel and Albert Neumann in 1894 when it was hydrolyzed from calf thymus tissues.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekκύτος all →

-cytecyto-cytodecytulamastocyteverocytotoxin

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.