Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Thermogenic
/ˌθɜːrmoʊˈdʒɛnɪk/adjective
Producing heat, or raising the body's heat output and energy expenditure.
The Greek roots
θερμός
thermós
hot, warm
-γενής
-genḗs
producing, giving rise to
Literally: “heat producing”
The story of the word
Physiologists used the word for shivering and brown fat long before supplement labels borrowed it. Brown adipose tissue burns fuel without doing any mechanical work, which is how a newborn stays warm and how hibernating mammals rewarm. The same θερμός sits on every vacuum flask: Thermos was registered as a trade name in 1904 and became the common word for the object.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
thermometerthermostathypothermiagenesis
In a sentence
The label claimed a thermogenic effect, which on inspection meant caffeine.
Shivering is the crudest thermogenic response the body has.