Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Hydration
/haɪˈdreɪʃən/noun
The state of holding enough water, or the chemical combining of a substance with water.
The Greek roots
ὕδωρ
hýdōr
water
Literally: “the taking on of water”
Follow a root:ὕδωρ26 words
The story of the word
ὕδωρ is a cousin of the English word water, and of otter, the animal named for nothing more than living in it. Chemists coined hydrate around 1800 for a compound that holds water inside its structure, and the abstract noun followed from there. Sports science borrowed it in the twentieth century, which is how a term out of mineralogy ended up printed on a plastic bottle.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
hydranthydraulichydradehydrate
In a sentence
The medic checked her hydration before letting her back on the court.