Etymology

vitamin

V4I1T1A1M3I1N1

Today it means: Any of a specific group of organic compounds essential in small quantities for healthy human growth, metabolism, development, and body function. They are found in minute amounts in plant and animal foods or sometimes produced synthetically, and deficiencies of specific vitamins produce specific disorders. Full definition →

English vitamine ← Latin ammoniacus ← Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓́μμων (Ắmmōn)
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
  2. Proto-Italic*gʷītā
  3. Latinvīta
  4. Egyptianjmn
  5. Ancient GreekᾸ̓́μμων (Ắmmōn)
  6. LatinAmmōn
  7. Latinammoniacus
  8. Englishammonia
  9. Englishamine
  10. Englishvitamine
  11. English todayvitamin

First use appears c. 1920, originally vitamine (1912), from Latin vīta (“life”) (see vital) + amine (see amino acids). Vitamine coined by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk after the initial discovery of aberic acid (thiamine), when it was thought that all such nutrients would be amines. The term had become ubiquitous by the time it was discovered that vitamin C, among others, had no amine component. In 1920, British biochemist Jack Drummond proposed that the final -e be dropped to deemphasize the amine reference. The ending -in was acceptable because it was used for natural substances of undefined composition. Drummond also introduced the lettering system of nomenclature (Vitamin A, B, C, etc.) at this same time.

Words from the same roots

Latinvīta all →

vitavitalometervitascopevitaspherevitology

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.