Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Glycogen
/ˈɡlaɪkədʒən/noun
The branched storage form of glucose held in liver and muscle.
The Greek roots
γλυκύς
glykýs
sweet
-γενής
-genḗs
producing, giving rise to
Literally: “sugar-maker”
The story of the word
Claude Bernard found in 1857 that the liver of a fasting animal was still releasing sugar, which overturned the assumption that only plants make it, and he called the stored substance glycogène, the sugar-maker. The name describes what it does rather than what it is. That γλυκύς also gives glucose and glycerine, and it sits inside the licorice plant's Greek name γλυκύρριζα, sweet root.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
glucoseglycerineglycolysishydrogen
In a sentence
Hitting the wall at thirty kilometres is glycogen running out, not willpower.
Muscle glycogen is refilled fastest in the first hour after hard work.