Etymology

mercaptoalkyl

M3E1R1C3A1P3T1O1A1L1K5Y4L1

Today it means: An alkyl group having a mercaptan (thiol) substituent Full definition →

English alkyl ← Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē) ← Proto-Indo-European *swel-der.?
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. LatinMercurius
  2. Latinmercurium
  3. Proto-Indo-European*kap-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*kapyéti
  5. Proto-Italic*kapjō
  6. Latincapiō
  7. Latincaptō
  8. Latincaptāns
  9. Latinmercurium captāns
  10. Englishmercapto-
  11. Akkadian𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)
  12. Aramaicכוחלא (kuḥlā)
  13. Arabicكُحْل (kuḥl)
  14. Andalusian Arabicكُحُول (kuḥūl)
  15. Medieval Latinalcoho
  16. Middle Englishalcofol
  17. Englishalc(ohol)
  18. Proto-Indo-European*swel-der.?
  19. Ancient Greekῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)
  20. Englishalkyl
  21. English todaymercaptoalkyl

From mercapto- + alkyl.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.