Etymology

heterochromatin

H4E1T1E1R1O1C3H4R1O1M3A1T1I1N1

Today it means: Heterochromatic tightly coiled chromosome material; believed to be genetically inactive Full definition →

English chromatin ← 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. Englishchromatin
  7. English todayheterochromatin

From hetero- + chromatin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.