acetaldehyde

What it means

1. countableuncountablechemistryA colourless organic compound, CH₃CHO, occurring widely in nature and being produced on a large scale in industry.

   When you have a drink, your body turns the ethanol that’s present in the alcoholic beverage into a “really nasty substance” called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA, said Timothy Stockwell, an alcohol researcher at the University of Victoria in Canada.

   2025 May 20, Caroline Hopkins Legaspi, quoting Timothy Stockwell, “Is There a Least Bad Alcohol?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 May 2025

   Synonyms: acetic aldehyde, ethanal

In a sentence

When you have a drink, your body turns the ethanol that’s present in the alcoholic beverage into a “really nasty substance” called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA, said Timothy Stockwell, an alcohol researcher at the University of Victoria in Canada.

2025 May 20, Caroline Hopkins Legaspi, quoting Timothy Stockwell, “Is There a Least Bad Alcohol?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 May 2025

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eḱ-
2. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eḱéh₁yeti
3. Proto-Italic*akēō
4. Latinaceō
5. Latinacēscō
6. Latinacētum
7. Englishaceto-
8. Englishacet-
9. Akkadian𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)
10. Aramaicכוחלא (kuḥlā)
11. Arabicكُحْل (kuḥl)
12. Andalusian Arabicكُحُول (kuḥūl)
13. Latinalcohol
14. Proto-Indo-European*de
15. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
16. Proto-Italic*dē
17. Latindē
18. Latinde-
19. Proto-Indo-European*wed-
20. Proto-Indo-European*wódr̥
21. Proto-Hellenic*údōr
22. Ancient Greekῡ̆̔́δωρ (hū̆́dōr)
23. Ancient Greekῠ̔δρο- (hŭdro-)
24. GermanAldehyd
25. Englishaldehyde
26. Englishacetaldehyde

From acet- + aldehyde.