Etymology

nucleobase

N1U1C3L1E1O1B3A1S1E1

Today it means: The base of a nucleic acid, such as thymine, uracil, adenine, cytosine and guanine. Full definition →

English base ← Middle English bas ← Old French bas
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The story

  1. Proto-Italic*knuks
  2. Latinnux
  3. Latinnucleu
  4. Englishnucleus
  5. Englishnucleo-
  6. Late Latinbassus
  7. Old Frenchbas
  8. Middle Englishbas
  9. Englishbase
  10. English todaynucleobase

From nucleo- + base.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.