Etymology

oligonucleotide

O1L1I1G2O1N1U1C3L1E1O1T1I1D2E1

Today it means: A short sequence of nucleotides (RNA or DNA), typically with twenty or fewer base pairs. Full definition →

English nucleotide ← Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ← Latin nucleu
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greekὀλῐ́γος (olĭ́gos)
  2. Englisholigo-
  3. Proto-Italic*knuks
  4. Latinnux
  5. Latinnucleu
  6. Englishnucleus
  7. Englishnucleo-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
  9. Englishnucleotide
  10. English todayoligonucleotide

From oligo- + nucleotide.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.