Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Galactose
/ɡəˈlæktoʊs/noun
A simple sugar that pairs with glucose to form lactose, the sugar of milk.
The Greek roots
γάλα, γάλακτος
gála, gálaktos
milk
Literally: “milk sugar”
Follow a root:γάλα, γάλακτος1 word
The story of the word
Chemists named it in the mid-nineteenth century after the place they found it, since lactose splits into glucose and this. The Greek for milk also named the sky: the Milky Way was γαλαξίας κύκλος, the milky circle, which is why galaxy and galactose are the same word wearing different clothes. Babies who cannot break galactose down have galactosaemia, one of the conditions newborn heel-prick screening looks for.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
galaxylactosegalactosaemia
In a sentence
Lactase splits lactose into glucose and galactose in the small intestine.