vitamin

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A natural substance found in food that the body needs in small amounts to stay healthy.

   Oranges are rich in vitamin C.

1920, originally vitamine (1912), from Latin vīta (“life”) (see vital) + amine (see amino acids). Vitamine coined by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk after the initial discovery of aberic acid (thiamine), when it was thought that all such nutrients would be amines. The term had become ubiquitous by the time it was discovered that vitamin C, among others, had no amine component. In 1920, British biochemist Jack Drummond proposed that the final -e be dropped to deemphasize the amine reference. The ending -in was acceptable because it was used for natural substances of undefined composition. Drummo…

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