Etymograph

English

nucleotide

Nucleotide comes from Latin nucleus ‘(small) nut’, and goes back to Proto-Italic *knuks.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*knuks‘nut’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnux‘nut’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEnucleus‘(small) nut’
  4. English1500–presentsame form
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1993nucleotide

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*knuks‘nut’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnux‘nut’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEnucleus‘(small) nut’
  4. English1500–presentsame form
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1993nucleotide

Earliest quotation: 1993, James Younger, Fishy Short Cut To Mapping Human Genome: “With a genome of only 400 million or so…”

A compound of nucleo- ‘relating to the nucleus’ + -ide ‘chemical suffix’

Proto-Italic *knuks ‘nut’

Latin nux ‘nut’

Latin nucleus ‘kernel, core’

English nucleus

English nucleo-

Linked words

through Latin nux ‘nut’

nut, nougat, 9 more

Today it means

noun The monomer constituting DNA or RNA biopolymer molecules. Each nucleotide consists of a nitrogenous heterocyclic base (or nucleobase), which can be either a double-ringed purine or a single-ringed pyrimidine; a five-carbon pentose sugar (deoxyribose in DNA or ribose in RNA); and a phosphate group.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *knuks / nucleotide

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