cholesterol

Etymology

It is formed from English cholesterin + -ol, with the chemical suffix for an alcohol in place of the older ending.^[2][3][4][5] The name was changed once the substance was found to be an alcohol.^[6] That word comes from French cholestérine, coined by the French chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul,^[7][2] in 1816 according to the OED and in 1827 according to Etymonline,^[2][6] from Ancient Greek χολή (kholḗ, “bile, gall”) and στερεός (stereós, “solid, stiff”) with the French suffix -ine.^[2][7][3] It was so named because it was first found in gallstones.^[5][7][8][6] Etymonline traces the Greek words to Proto-Indo-European *ghel- (“to shine”), whose derivatives name green and yellow and hence bile, and to *ster- (“stiff”).^[6] German Cholesterol (1894) was taken from English, but the usual German name is still Cholesterin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The steroid alcohol found in animal cells and body fluids: 1894, in the Journal of the Chemical Society.^[2][9][4] The older name cholesterin is recorded in English from 1818.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The new name replaced cholesterin, which the Shorter Oxford now calls rare or obsolete,^[10][8] although German kept the older form.^[2] Etymonline notes that the substance itself had first been found in gallstones, by Conradi in 1775.^[6] From 1923 the word was also used for the level of cholesterol in a person's blood,^[2] a use that reflects the link between a high level and atherosclerosis and heart disease.^[8]

Timeline

• 1816 – Chevreul names the substance cholestérine in French (1827 in Etymonline).^[2][6]
• 1818 – cholesterin in English.^[2][4]
• 1894 – cholesterol.^[2][9][4][6]
• 1923 – the level of cholesterol in the blood.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sterol found in animal cells, blood, bile and animal fats, which helps to keep cell membranes fluid and is the starting point for other steroids in the body.
2. The level of this substance in a person's blood: His doctor told him to watch his cholesterol.

Word family

• cholesterolemia
• bad cholesterol
• good cholesterol

Related words

• cholesterin
• sterol
• steroid
• stereo
• cholera
• melancholy
• gall

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press