Where does “biomolecular” come from?
Biomolecular comes from English molecule and Ancient Greek βίος combined with Latin -alis, -arius, and -lus suffixes.
biomolecular (English): Relating to biomolecules
Ancestry of “biomolecular”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | molecular | Relating to, or consisting of, or produced by... |
| 2 | English | -ar | Of, near, or pertaining to; Forming nouns such as... |
| 3 | Middle English | -ar | — |
| 4 | Old English | -ere | masculine agent suffix, originally applied only... |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | -ārī | -er |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | -ārijaz | -er |
| 7 | Latin | -ārius | — |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | *-āzios | — |