nicotine

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from French nicotine,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} formed with the suffix -ine from New Latin nicotiana (“the tobacco plant”),^[2][3][4][8] with a change of suffix from the earlier nicotiane.^[9][2] The OED, revised in 2003, instead treats it as formed in English from the stem of nicotian and nicotiana and the suffix -in, and dates the French word to 1818, in a translation of the very work of Thomson in which the English word first appears.^[10] The New Latin name is herba nicotiana (“Nicot's herb”),^[9][11][7] attested in 1565 in Gesner and attributed there to the French; the OED takes it from Middle French nicotiane, recorded in 1567.^[10] It honours Jean Nicot (about 1530–1600), French ambassador in Lisbon, who introduced tobacco into France in 1560,^{[10][3][9][11]} sending some to Catherine de Medici;^[11][12] Etymonline and Wiktionary date the sending of seeds to 1561.^[2][13] Hoad and Weekley call him Jacques Nicot.^[5][12] His name is a diminutive of Nicolas according to Etymonline and Weekley;^[2][12] Wiktionary calls the origin of the surname unclear.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The poisonous alkaloid of tobacco: 1817, in T. Thomson's System of Chemistry (5th edition),^[10][6] at first spelled nicotin.^[8][2] Barnhart and Etymonline date nicotin to 1819, and Barnhart the spelling nicotine to 1839.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its chemical sense.^[10][6] It came after older English words for the plant itself: nicotian (1577), from French, and nicotiana (1600), first used for the tobacco plant or tobacco and later for the whole genus.^[10][11] An adjective nicotian, "of tobacco", is recorded from 1609 and is now archaic.^[10] Barnhart dates nicotinic to 1873, from nicotinic acid, formed when nicotine is oxidized.^[3] Merriam-Webster also uses nicotine for the flowering tobacco plant.^[6]

Timeline

• 1560 – Jean Nicot introduces tobacco into France.^[10][11]
• 1577 – nicotian, the tobacco plant.^[10]
• 1600 – nicotiana, the tobacco plant.^[10]
• 1817 – the alkaloid of tobacco, as nicotin.^[10][6][8]
• 1819 – nicotin in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[3][2]
• 1839 – the spelling nicotine.^[3]
• 1873 – nicotinic.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A poisonous, colourless or yellowish, oily alkaloid, the chief active substance in tobacco; a stimulant in small doses, it is also used as an insecticide: the nicotine in a cigarette.^[7][6][10]
2. Flowering tobacco, a plant of the genus Nicotiana.^[6]

Word family

• nicotined
• nicotineless
• nicotinamide
• nicotinism
• nornicotine
• nicotinic
• nicotinize

Related words

• nicotiana
• nicotian
• tobacco

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House