polymerase

Etymology

It is formed from English polymer + -ase,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} the suffix -ase being taken from the ending of diastase and used to name enzymes.^[7][2] Polymer was formed after polymeric, probably first in German,^[2][3] and goes back to Ancient Greek πολυμερής (polumerēs, “consisting of many parts”),^[2][8][7] whose second part is μέρος (méros, “part”).^[8][7] Etymonline gives 1866 for polymerase and names Berzelius (1830) as the coiner,^[7] but these are the dates of polymer itself, which the OED records from 1866 and Etymonline traces to a German term of Berzelius's from 1830.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An enzyme that catalyses the formation of a polymer, especially a polynucleotide: 1948, in the journal Science.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate gives 1958,^[9] and Dictionary.com 1955–60.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED defines the word broadly, for any enzyme that builds a polymer, with polynucleotides as the special case.^[2] In current use, as Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary define it, it names chiefly the enzymes that assemble DNA or RNA from their building blocks, copying an existing strand that serves as a template.^[3][10] Compounds such as DNA polymerase and RNA polymerase name the two kinds,^[3][6] and the polymerase chain reaction is a method of making many copies of a DNA sequence by repeated reactions with a polymerase.^[4]

Timeline

• 1948 – an enzyme that catalyses the formation of a polymer, especially a polynucleotide.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (biochemistry) Any of several enzymes that catalyse the building of DNA or RNA from smaller units, using an existing strand as a template.^[3][10][11]
2. More generally, any enzyme that catalyses the formation of a polymer.^[2][11][4]

Word family

• DNA polymerase
• polymerase chain reaction
• RNA polymerase

Related words

• polymer
• polymeric
• polymerize
• diastase

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins