Translations:Vitamin/29/en

Etymology

The term "vitamin" was derived from "vitamine", a compound word coined in 1912 by the biochemist Casimir Funk while working at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. Funk created the name from vital and amine, because it appeared that these organic micronutrient food factors that prevent beriberi and perhaps other similar dietary-deficiency diseases were required for life, hence "vital", and were chemical amines, hence "amine". This was true of thiamine, but after it was found that vitamin C and other such micronutrients were not amines, the word was shortened to "vitamin" in English.