Etymology

pachytene

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Today it means: The third stage of prophase 1 of meiosis, during which the chromosomes shorten and divide into four chromatids. Full definition →

French pachytène
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The story

  1. French · borrowed frompachytène
  2. English todaypachytene

From French pachytène, equivalent to pachy- (“thick”) + -tene (“ribbon”). Coined by Hans von De Winiwarter in 1900 and in English by Edmund B. Wilson in 1912.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.