Etymology

phytosterol

P3H4Y4T1O1S1T1E1R1O1L1

Today it means: Any of a group of steroid alcohols, phytochemicals naturally occurring in plants. They are white powders with mild, characteristic odor, insoluble in water and soluble in alcohols. Full definition →

English sterol ← French cholestéro ← Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós)
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰuH-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰuHyéti
  3. Ancient Greekφῠ́ω (phŭ́ō)
  4. Ancient Greekφῠτός (phŭtós)
  5. Ancient Greekφῠτόν (phŭtón)
  6. Englishphyto-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰelh₃-
  8. Proto-Hellenic*kʰolā́
  9. Ancient Greekχολή (kholḗ)
  10. Proto-Indo-European*ster-
  11. Ancient Greekστερεός (stereós)
  12. Frenchcholestérine
  13. Frenchcholestéro
  14. Englishcholesterol
  15. Englishsterol
  16. English todayphytosterol

From phyto- + sterol.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.