Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Creatine
/ˈkriːətiːn/noun
A compound stored in muscle that recycles energy during short bursts of effort.
The Greek roots
κρέας
kréas
flesh, meat
Literally: “meat substance”
Follow a root:κρέας3 words
The story of the word
Michel Eugène Chevreul pulled a new substance out of skeletal muscle in 1832 and named it from κρέας, meat. The same root sits in pancreas, the gland called all-flesh, and in creosote, coined for a wood-tar distillate that stopped meat from rotting. Athletes now buy it by the tub; Chevreul was analysing broth.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1830s
Same family
creatininepancreascreosote
In a sentence
He takes creatine before training and can feel the difference on the last set.