chitin

chitin

See also: Chitin

English

Etymology

From French chitine, from Latin chitōn (“mollusk”), from Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn). See also chiton.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kīʹtĭn, IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪtɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪtɪn

Noun

chitin (countable and uncountable, plural chitins)

1. (biochemistry) A complex polysaccharide, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi; thought to be responsible for some forms of asthma in humans.
   • 1880, Arthur Gamgee, A Text-book of the Physiological Chemistry of the Animal Body, Macmillan, p. 299

     Chitin usually occurs throughout Invertebrates in the form of an investment to the outermost cellular layer or ectoderm.

   • 2004, New Scientist, 11 Sep 2004, p.19

     The robot’s energy source is the sugar in the polysaccharide called chitin that makes up a fly’s exoskeleton.

Derived terms

• chitinaceous
• chitinase
• chitinization
• chitinlike
• chitinoid
• chitinolysis
• chitinous
• lipochitin
• polychitin

 

Translations

polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in arthropod and fungi

Armenian: խիտին (hy) (xitin) Bulgarian: хитин m (hitin) Catalan: quitina f Chinese: Mandarin: 甲殼素／甲壳素 (zh) (jiǎqiàosù), 幾丁質／几丁质 (zh) (jīdīngzhì) Czech: chitin (cs) m Esperanto: kitino Finnish: kitiini (fi) French: chitine (fr) f German: Chitin (de) Hindi: कठिनि (kaṭhini) Indonesian: kitin (id) Italian: chitina (it) f Japanese: キチン (kichin) Kannada: ಕೈಟಿನ್ (kaiṭin) Kazakh: хитин (xitin) Korean: 키틴 (kitin), 갑각소(甲殼素) (gapgakso) Malay: kitin Occitan: quitina f Persian: کیتین‎ Portuguese: quitina f Russian: хити́н (ru) m (xitín) Serbo-Croatian: hitin (sh) m Spanish: quitina f Tamil: கைட்டின் (kaiṭṭiṉ) Thai: ไคทิน, ไคติน Turkish: kitin (tr) Ukrainian: хіти́н m (xitýn) Uzbek: xitin

References

• chitin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “chitin”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• itchin'