Etymology

polyhaloalkane

P3O1L1Y4H4A1L1O1A1L1K5A1N1E1

Today it means: Any of very many aliphatic organic compounds derived from a hydrocarbon by the replacement of two or more hydrogen atoms with those of a halogen Full definition →

English alkane ← German Alkan ← Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*pleh₁-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*polh₁ús
  3. Ancient Greekπολῠ́ς (polŭ́s)
  4. Englishpoly-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*sḗh₂l
  6. Proto-Hellenic*hā́ls
  7. Ancient Greekᾰ̔́λς (hắls)
  8. Englishhalo-
  9. Akkadian𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)
  10. Aramaicכוחלא (kuḥlā)
  11. Arabicكُحْل (kuḥl)
  12. Andalusian Arabicكُحُول (kuḥūl)
  13. Medieval Latinalcoho
  14. GermanAlk(ohol)
  15. Proto-Indo-European*swel-der.?
  16. Ancient Greekῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)
  17. GermanAlkyl
  18. Germanalk-
  19. GermanAlkan
  20. Englishalkane
  21. English todaypolyhaloalkane

From poly- + halo- + alkane.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.