Etymology

pentachlorophenol

Today it means: A fully chlorinated derivative of phenol that is used as a fungicide and wood preservative. Full definition →

English phenol ← French phène ← Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō)
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*pénkʷe
  2. Proto-Hellenic*pénkʷe
  3. Ancient Greekπέντε (pénte)
  4. Ancient Greekπεντᾰ- (pentă-)
  5. Englishpenta-
  6. Englishchloro-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*bʰh₂nyéti
  9. Proto-Hellenic*pʰáňňō
  10. Ancient Greekφαίνω (phaínō)
  11. Frenchphène
  12. Englishphenol
  13. English todaypentachlorophenol

From penta- + chloro- + phenol.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.