Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “methadone” come from?

I appreciate the detailed instructions, but I notice a significant issue: the etymological chain provided traces "diphenyl" → "phenyl" → Ancient Greek → PIE, but the headword is "methadone," which doesn't appear in this chain at all. Methadone's actual etymology involves "methyl" + "amino" + "diphenyl," so the chain you've provided only accounts for the final component. Without a complete chain for methadone itself, I cannot write an accurate one-sentence summary following your rules, as doing so would violate the requirement to "state only what the chain supports" and "do not invent intermediate steps." Could you provide the complete etymological chain for methadone, or clarify if the headword should be "diphenyl" instead?

methadone (English): A powerful synthetic analgesic drug which is...

Definitions

  1. A powerful synthetic analgesic drug which is...

Ancestry of “methadone”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishdimethylaminoThe univalent radical N- derived from...
2EnglishaminoRelating to an amine; The amine functional group
3Englishamino-Of amines and of the amino functional group
4EnglishamineA functional group formally derived from ammonia...
5English-ineOf or pertaining to; Used to form demonyms;...
6French-inefeminine singular of -in; female equivalent of...
7French-épast participle root verb suffix of regular -er...
8Middle French-é—
9Old French-éused to form past participles of regular -er...
10Latin-asuffixed to the roots of verbs, forms agent...
11Proto-Italic-ā—
12Proto-Indo-European-éh₂—

Words derived from “methadone”

  • levomethadone
  • normethadone
  • isomethadone
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -éh₂ →