Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Lycopene
/ˈlaɪkəpiːn/noun
The red carotenoid pigment that colours tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit.
The Greek roots
λύκος
lýkos
wolf
περσικόν
persikón
peach, Persian fruit
Literally: “wolf-peach substance”
The story of the word
The name comes from Lycopersicum, the old botanical name for the tomato, which translates as 'wolf peach' and reflects an early European suspicion that the fruit was poisonous, since it belongs to the nightshade family. Greeks called the peach μῆλον περσικόν, the Persian apple, believing it came from Persia, and that adjective is the second half here. Unlike most nutrients, lycopene becomes more available when cooked, so tomato paste delivers far more of it than a raw tomato.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → botanical Latin → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
lycanthropycarotenepeach
In a sentence
Cooking the tomatoes in oil pulls more lycopene out of the cell walls.