Where does “megabase pair” come from?
megabase pair (English) comes from English mega, from Ancient Greek μέγας, from Proto-Indo-European meǵh₂s — great.
megabase pair (English): One million base pairs in succession (used as a measure of the size of a nucleic acid or a gene)
Definitions
- One million base pairs in succession (used as a measure of the size of a nucleic acid or a gene)
Ancestry of “megabase pair”, step by step
megabase pair traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English mega
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | mega | Very large; great; excellent |
| 2 | Ancient Greek | μέγας | big, large; great, mighty, loud; marvelous,... |
| 3 | Proto-Indo-European | meǵh₂s | great |
via English base pair
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | base pair | In molecular biology, two nucleotides on opposite... |