Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Chlorophyll
/ˈklɔrəfɪl/noun
The pigment that makes plants green and absorbs the light that drives photosynthesis.
The Greek roots
χλωρός
khlōrós
pale green, yellow-green
φύλλον
phýllon
leaf
Literally: “green leaf”
The story of the word
Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou named the substance in 1817, the same partnership that would go on to isolate strychnine in 1818 and quinine in 1820. χλωρός covers a band English splits in two, the yellow-green of new growth and of a frightened face, which is why Homer can use it of honey and of fear alike. Humphry Davy had reached for the same colour word seven years earlier when he named chlorine.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1819
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
chlorinechloroformchlorosisphyllotaxis
In a sentence
Autumn colour is what is left once the chlorophyll drains out of the leaf.