Etymology

fluorescein

F4L1U1O1R1E1S1C3E1I1N1

Today it means: Any of a class of yellow xanthene dyes which are visible when highly diluted; used forensically to detect traces of blood, and in analytical chemistry as an indicator in silver nitrate titrations Full definition →

English fluoresce ← Middle English sparston ← Old English spærstān
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰel-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰlewH-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*bʰluH-yé-ti?
  4. Latinfluō
  5. Latinfluor
  6. Englishfluor
  7. Englishfluorite
  8. Middle Low Germanspar
  9. Old Englishspærstān
  10. Middle Englishsparston
  11. Englishsparstonebf.
  12. Englishspar
  13. Englishfluorspar
  14. Englishfluorescencebf.
  15. Englishfluoresce
  16. English todayfluorescein

From fluoresce + -in.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.