Peptone
/ˈpɛp.toʊn/noun
A mixture of partially digested proteins used in biology and microbiology.
Did you know?Peptone was coined in modern scientific Latin from Greek roots tied to digestion, and its name comes from the same ancient family as words for “cooking” and “ripening,” because breaking things down was once imagined as a kind of controlled transformation.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Greek
Greek
πέπτειν (péptein)
“to digest, ripen, or cook”
Late Greek
Greek
πέπτων (péptōn)
“digesting or digested”
19th Century
Scientific Latin
peptone
“a product derived from protein digestion”
Modern English
English
peptone
“a partially digested protein mixture used in laboratory media”