The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromπρῶτος
- French · derived fromacide propionique
- English todaypropionic acid
From French acide propionique, coined by chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas, from Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos) ("first") and πίων (píōn) ("fat"), because it was the smallest carboxylic acid that exhibited the properties of the other fatty acids, such as producing an oily layer when salted out of water and having a soapy potassium salt.
Words from the same roots
Ancient Greekπρῶτος all →
prothonotaryprotoplasmprotiumprotopapasprop-protide
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.