Etymology

polybacterial

P3O1L1Y4B3A1C3T1E1R1I1A1L1

Today it means: Relating to more than one kind of bacterium. Full definition →

English bacterial ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? ← New Latin bactēria
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*pleh₁-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*polh₁ús
  3. Ancient Greekπολῠ́ς (polŭ́s)
  4. Englishpoly-
  5. Ancient Greekβακτηρία (baktēría)
  6. Ancient Greekβακτήριον (baktḗrion)
  7. New Latinbactēria
  8. Englishbacteria
  9. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  10. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  11. Englishbacterial
  12. English todaypolybacterial

From poly- + bacterial.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.