Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Enzyme
/ˈɛnzaɪm/noun
A protein that speeds up a specific chemical reaction inside a living thing.
The Greek roots
ἐν
en
in, within
ζύμη
zýmē
leaven, yeast
Literally: “in the leaven”
The story of the word
Wilhelm Kühne needed a word in 1878 for whatever in yeast did the fermenting without itself being alive, and built Enzym from ἐν and ζύμη, ordinary bread leaven. So the term means something close to 'in the sourdough'. English took it by 1881. The -ase that ends amylase and lactase came later, cut from diastase, itself Greek διάστασις, a separation.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage (German) → English
- First recorded
- 1881
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
zymurgylysozymecoenzyme
In a sentence
Without that enzyme the milk sugar goes straight through undigested.