enzyme

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Enzym, coined by the physiologist Wilhelm Kühne in 1877 (Etymonline and Klein: 1878),^[2][3][4][5] from Byzantine Greek ἔνζυμος (énzumos, “leavened”),^[6][3][7] formed from Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) and ζύμη (zúmē, “leaven”).^[8][5] Etymonline, Hoad and the ODE call the Greek adjective modern Greek.^[4][9][10] Merriam-Webster connects the noun for leaven, perhaps, with Latin iūs (“broth”), the source of juice.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In biochemistry, a protein made by living cells that acts as a catalyst: 1881, in a paper by W. Roberts in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.^[2][3][4] The form had appeared in English before that, in 1850, for the leavened bread of the Eucharist in the Greek Church, built directly on the Greek elements.^[2][11][3]

Timeline

• 1850 – the leavened Eucharistic bread of the Greek Church.^[2][11]
• 1877 – Kühne coins German Enzym.^[2][3]
• 1881 – first English use in biochemistry.^[2][3][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (biochemistry) A substance, mostly or wholly protein, made by living cells, that acts as a catalyst for a specific biochemical reaction, as pepsin does in digestion.
2. (Christianity) The leavened bread used in the Eucharist of the Greek Church.

Word family

• enzymatic
• antienzyme
• ectoenzyme
• endoenzyme
• enzymology
• enzymolysis
• exoenzyme
• isoenzyme

Related words

• zymase
• zymo-
• zymogen
• zymogenic
• zymogram
• zymurgy
• juice
• catalyst

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press