Everyday LifeGreek → English
Xanthan
/ˈzænθən/noun
A polysaccharide made by bacterial fermentation and used to thicken food and drilling fluid.
The Greek roots
ξανθός
xanthós
yellow, golden
Literally: “the yellow one”
Follow a root:ξανθός2 words
The story of the word
The gum is named after the bacterium that secretes it, Xanthomonas campestris, and the bacterium is named for the yellow of its colonies. Ξανθός is the colour of Menelaus's hair in Homer and of standing wheat. Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture laboratory in Peoria worked the polysaccharide out in the 1950s, food manufacturers took it up in the 1960s, and a pinch of it now does the job a spoonful of flour used to.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1960s
Same family
xanthinexanthophyllxanthoma
In a sentence
Gluten-free bread falls apart without xanthan gum.
Read the label on any bottled dressing and xanthan is in there.