Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Glycemic
/ɡlaɪˈsimɪk/adjective
Relating to the concentration of glucose in the blood.
The Greek roots
γλυκύς
glykýs
sweet
αἷμα
haîma
blood
Literally: “sweet blood”
The story of the word
The word names a taste, and for centuries taste was the test: physicians without chemistry diagnosed diabetes by sampling a patient's urine, which is where the mellitus in diabetes mellitus comes from, honey-sweet. The glycemic index, ranking foods by how fast they push blood glucose up, was devised by David Jenkins in Toronto in 1981 to help people with diabetes choose between starches. γλυκύς also gives glucose, glycerine and liquorice, which came through γλυκύρριζα, sweet root, and Latin liquiritia.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
glucoseglycerineliquoriceglycogen
In a sentence
Porridge has a lower glycemic load than the cereal beside it, whatever the box claims.