Where does “megabasepair” come from?

megabasepair (English) comes from English mega, from Ancient Greek μέγας, from Proto-Indo-European meǵh₂s — great.

megabasepair (English): A million (sometimes 220) base pairs

Definitions

  1. A million (sometimes 220) base pairs

Ancestry of “megabasepair”, step by step

megabasepair traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English mega

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishmegaVery large; great; excellent
2Ancient Greekμέγαςbig, large; great, mighty, loud; marvelous,...
3Proto-Indo-Europeanmeǵh₂sgreat

via English basepair

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishbasepairTo bind separate DNA or RNA sequences by base pairs
Every word from Proto-Indo-European meǵh₂sEvery word from Ancient Greek μέγαςEvery word from English mega