Etymology

denitrify

D2E1N1I1T1R1I1F4Y4

Today it means: To remove nitrogen, often through the breakdown of nitrogenous compounds and the release of nitrogen gas. Full definition →

Proto-Italic *θakos ← Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ← English nitro-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Englishde-
  7. Egyptiannṯr
  8. Egyptiannṯrj
  9. Ancient Greekνῐ́τρον (nĭ́tron)
  10. Englishnitro-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
  12. Proto-Italic*θakos
  13. English todaydenitrify

From de- + nitro- + -ify.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.