Etymology

lactose

L1A1C3T1O1S1E1

Today it means: The disaccharide sugar of milk and dairy products, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, a product of glucose and galactose used as a food and in medicinal compounds. Full definition →

French lactose
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. French · borrowed fromlactose
  2. English todaylactose

Borrowed from French lactose, from Latin lac (“milk”) + -ose (derivation of glucose). Coined by French chemist Marcelin Berthelot. Piecewise doublet of galactose.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.