Etymology

thermometabolism

Today it means: The metabolism of calorific food Full definition →

English metabolism ← Ancient Greek μετᾰβολή (metăbolḗ) ← Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷʰer-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*gʷʰermos
  3. Proto-Hellenic*kʷʰermós
  4. Ancient Greekθερμός (thermós)
  5. Englishthermo-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*me
  7. Proto-Indo-European*meth₂?
  8. Ancient Greekμετᾰ́ (metắ)
  9. Ancient Greekμετα- (meta-)
  10. Proto-Indo-European*gʷelH-
  11. Proto-Hellenic*gʷəlnō
  12. Ancient Greekβάλλω (bállō)
  13. Ancient Greekμεταβάλλω (metabállō)
  14. Ancient Greekμετᾰβολή (metăbolḗ)
  15. Englishmetabolism
  16. English todaythermometabolism

From thermo- + metabolism.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.