Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Epinephrine
/ˌɛpɪˈnɛfrɪn/noun
The hormone released by the adrenal glands in stress, also given as a drug for anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.
The Greek roots
ἐπί
epí
upon
νεφρός
nephrós
kidney
Literally: “upon the kidney”
The story of the word
John Jacob Abel coined epinephrine in 1898 from Greek for on-the-kidney, exactly what adrenaline says in Latin. Jokichi Takamine isolated the pure hormone and trademarked Adrenalin, which is why American pharmacology says epinephrine while British usage says adrenaline: a trademark dispute fossilised into two national vocabularies. Both words name the same molecule and the same gland.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1898
Same family
nephritisnephrologyepidermisepilogue
In a sentence
She carries an epinephrine auto-injector in her bag at all times.