Etymology

histone

H4I1S1T1O1N1E1

Today it means: Any of various simple water-soluble proteins that are rich in the basic amino acids lysine and arginine and are complexed with DNA in the nucleosomes of eukaryotic chromatin. Full definition →

German Histon ← Ancient Greek ἵστημι
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromἵστημι“make stand”
  2. German · borrowed fromHiston
  3. English todayhistone

Borrowed from German Histon, perhaps from Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “make stand”) or ἱστός (histós, “loom”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.