The story
- Proto-Italic*knuks
- Latinnux
- Latinnucleu
- Englishnucleus
- Englishnucleo-
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
- English todaynucleotide
From nucleo- (“relating to the nucleus”) + -ide (“chemical suffix”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
nucleotide
Today it means: The monomer constituting DNA or RNA biopolymer molecules. Each nucleotide consists of a nitrogenous heterocyclic base (or nucleobase), which can be either a double-ringed purine or a single-ringed pyrimidine; a five-carbon pentose sugar (deoxyribose in DNA or ribose in RNA); and a phosphate group. Full definition →
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ← English nucleo- ← Latin nucleu