urea

Etymology

It is borrowed from French urée (1803) with a Latinized ending,^[2][3][4] which other dictionaries describe as a New Latin form of the French word.^[5][6][7] Klein says the French word was coined by the chemist Antoine-François de Fourcroy from the base of urine.^[8] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged derive it from French urine, from Latin ūrīna;^[5][6] the OED, Hoad and Etymonline from Ancient Greek οὖρον (oûron, “urine”) or the verb οὐρέω (ouréō, “to urinate”).^[2][9][4] The same word is Italian urea, Spanish urea and Portuguese urea.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The crystalline compound in urine: 1806, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged give the same year.^[7][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The OED's definition names it as a constituent of the urine of mammals, birds and some reptiles, also found in the blood and milk.^[2] Its synthetic form is now used as a fertilizer, in animal feed and in making resins.^[10][6] Since 1935 urea has also been short for a urea-formaldehyde plastic or resin.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that it is made commercially from ammonia and carbon dioxide under pressure.^[6] It is also called carbamide.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1806 – the compound found in urine.^[2][7][6]
• 1935 – a urea-formaldehyde plastic or resin.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A white, water-soluble crystalline compound, CO(NH₂)₂, formed when protein is broken down in the body and the chief nitrogenous part of the urine of mammals; made synthetically for fertilizers, animal feed and resins.^[10][6][2]
2. A urea-formaldehyde plastic or resin.^[2]

Word family

• ureal

Related words

• urine
• uric

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House