English
betalain
Betalain comes from Latin bēta ‘beet’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbēta‘beet’
- Englishearliest quotation 1981betalain
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbēta‘beet’
- Englishearliest quotation 1981betalain
Earliest quotation: 1981, Arthur Cronquist, An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants: “Among the angiosperms, betalains are known only in the…”
Formed from -in
The story
Coined to describe the pigments as derivatives from betalamic acid, from Latin bēta (‘beet’), + -in.
Linked words
through Latin bēta ‘beet’
Today it means
noun A class of red and yellow indole-derived water-soluble pigments found in beets and other plants of the Caryophyllales and used commercially as coloring agents.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin bēta / betalain