Etymology

heteroatom

H4E1T1E1R1O1A1T1O1M3

Today it means: Any atom which is not carbon or hydrogen. Full definition →

English atom ← Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros) ← Proto-Hellenic *hə́teros
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sḿ̥teros
  3. Proto-Hellenic*hə́teros
  4. Ancient Greekἕτερος (héteros)
  5. Englishhetero-
  6. Englishatom
  7. English todayheteroatom

From hetero- + atom.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.