Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Anaerobic
/ˌænəˈroʊbɪk/adjective
Living or working without oxygen.
The Greek roots
ἀν-
an-
without
ἀήρ
aḗr
air
βίος
bíos
life
Literally: “life without air”
The story of the word
Pasteur named the thing in the early 1860s, after finding fermentation microbes that died when air reached them; French anaérobie came first and English followed. Sports science borrowed the word much later and stretched it: an anaerobic sprint has plenty of air in the lungs, just not enough oxygen reaching the muscle in time. The ἀήρ inside it is the same air as in aerial and aerosol.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
Same family
aerobicaerialbiologysymbiosisantibiotic
In a sentence
Sprints and heavy lifting are anaerobic work; a long slow run is not.
The sludge digester is kept anaerobic on purpose.