chromosome

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Chromosom,^[2][3] a word coined in 1888 by the German anatomist Wilhelm von Waldeyer-Hartz,^[4][5][6] from Ancient Greek χρῶμα (khrôma, “colour”) and σῶμα (sôma, “body”).^[5][7][2] The OED analyses the English word as a compound of chromo- and -some modelled on the German one.^[6][8] It was so named because the structures contain a substance that takes up basic dyes readily.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the thread-like bodies in the nucleus of a cell that become visible as rods during cell division: 1889, in W. B. Benham's English translation of Waldeyer's paper.^[6][4][9]

Semantic evolution

The word was coined for what microscopists saw in stained cells, and only later came to be understood as the carrier of the genes.^[4][3] From 1932 it was extended to structures that do the same work in other organisms, especially the single, often circular DNA molecule of a bacterium.^[6][9]

Timeline

• 1888 – German Chromosom, coined by Waldeyer.^[6][4]
• 1889 – English chromosome, a thread-like body in the cell nucleus.^[6][4][9]
• 1932 – an analogous genetic structure in prokaryotes and viruses.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of the thread-like structures of DNA and protein in the nucleus of a cell that carry the genes and are passed on in cell division: Each human body cell normally has 46 chromosomes.^[9][10][3]
2. A comparable structure in bacteria and other organisms without a nucleus, usually a single ring of DNA.^[9][6]

Word family

• chromosomal
• chromosomally
• euchromosome
• heterochromosome
• isochromosome
• B chromosome
• chromosome number

Related words

• chromo-
• chromato-
• -chrome
• chromatic
• chroma
• chromatin
• -some
• somatic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins