Etymology

tricyclic

T1R1I1C3Y4C3L1I1C3

Today it means: Having three rings of atoms in the molecule. Full definition →

English cyclic ← Classical Latin cyclicus ← French cyclique
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tréyes
  2. Proto-Indo-European*tri-
  3. Proto-Italic*tri-
  4. Latintri-
  5. Englishtri-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*kʷelh₁-redup.
  7. Proto-Indo-European*kʷékʷlos
  8. Proto-Hellenic*kʷókʷlos
  9. Proto-Hellenic*kúklos
  10. Ancient Greekκύκλος (kúklos)
  11. Ancient Greekκυκλῐκός (kuklĭkós)
  12. Classical Latincyclicu
  13. Middle Frenchcyclique
  14. Frenchcyclique
  15. Classical Latincyclicus
  16. Englishcyclic
  17. English todaytricyclic

From tri- + cyclic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.