Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Hydrate
/ˈhaɪdreɪt/noun
A chemical compound with water molecules bound into its structure.
The Greek roots
ὕδωρ
hýdōr
water
Literally: “watered thing”
Follow a root:ὕδωρ26 words
The story of the word
Chemists around 1800 needed a name for a salt that carried water inside its crystal, and built one on ὕδωρ. For a century the word stayed in the laboratory: gypsum is a hydrate, copper sulfate is a hydrate, and driving the water off changes the colour. The verb that everyone now uses about drinking water is the latecomer, lifted out of clinical medicine in the twentieth century.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1802
Same family
hydrogenhydraulicdehydratehydranthydrophobia
In a sentence
Heat the hydrate and the water leaves as steam, taking the blue with it.
The nurse told him to hydrate properly before the blood test.