kinase

Etymology

It is formed from English kinetic + -ase, with the first part shortened,^[2][3][4] or, as the OED and Etymonline put it, from Ancient Greek κινέω (kinéō, “to move”) and the chemical suffix.^[5][6][7][8] Merriam-Webster places it in the International Scientific Vocabulary and says it was first formed in German.^[9] Etymonline traces the Greek verb to Proto-Indo-European *keie- (“to set in motion”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A substance that turns an inactive precursor, a zymogen, into an active enzyme: 1902, in W. H. Thompson's translation of Pavlov's Work of the Digestive Glands.^[5][9][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, which covered substances such as enterokinase, is now rare or obsolete.^[7][9] From 1953 the word was used for any enzyme that transfers a phosphate group from ATP or a similar molecule to another molecule, the process of phosphorylation, and this is the current sense.^[5][7][3] Stedman's notes that kinases are important in the salvage and recycling of nucleotides and that some antiviral drugs work by inactivating viral or tumour kinases.^[10]

Timeline

• 1902 – a substance that activates a zymogen.^[5][9][6]
• 1953 – an enzyme that transfers a phosphate group from ATP to another molecule.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An enzyme that transfers a phosphate group from ATP or another donor molecule to a target molecule: Many cancer drugs work by blocking a single kinase.^[3][9][5][7]
2. (now rare) A substance that converts an inactive zymogen into an active enzyme.^{[3][9][7][10]}

Word family

• aspartokinase
• glucokinase
• streptokinase
• thrombokinase
• urokinase
• creatine kinase
• protein kinase

Related words

• kinetic
• kinesis
• cinema

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins