steroid

Etymology

It is formed from English sterol + -oid,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} that is, the first part of sterol with the suffix meaning "resembling".^[7][2] Sterol was taken from the ending of cholesterol and similar chemical names,^[2][7] and -oid comes through Latin from Ancient Greek -οειδής (-oeidḗs, “like”), from εἶδος (eîdos, “form, shape”).^[8][7] Merriam-Webster treats it as a word of the International Scientific Vocabulary.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any of a class of compounds with a skeleton of four fused carbon rings, including the sterols and various hormones: 1936, in a paper by Callow and Young in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.^[2][4][7] Merriam-Webster gives 1926 as its first known use,^[9] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1925–30.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word was coined as a chemists' name for the whole class of compounds built like the sterols, which includes the bile acids, the sex and adrenal hormones and the D vitamins.^[2][11][5] It soon served as an attributive noun in phrases such as steroid chemistry and steroid hormone.^[5] In general use steroid or steroids came to mean a drug containing such a compound,^[12] and especially, as a shortening, an anabolic steroid.^[13][6]

Timeline

• 1936 – any of a class of compounds related to the sterols.^[2][4][7]
• mid 20th century – steroidal.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (biochemistry) Any of a large class of fat-soluble organic compounds whose molecules have four fused rings of carbon atoms, including the sterols, bile acids, many hormones and the D vitamins.^{[11][14][2][9]}
2. A drug containing such a compound, especially an anabolic steroid: The sprinter was banned after testing positive for steroids.^[12][13][6]

Word family

• corticosteroid
• ketosteroid
• steroidogenesis
• anabolic steroid

Related words

• sterol
• cholesterol
• -oid

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
13. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin