Re: OT: 'deoxiribos'

Muke Tever wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Andreas Johansson" <and_yo@...>
> > Well, 'deoxiribos' is a kind of sugar. Together with nucleinic acids it
> > forms DNA.
>[snip]
> > FWIW, the prefix 'deoxi-' means something like "without oxygen" - if you
>add
> > an atom of oxygen to deoxiribos you get another kind of sugar called
> > 'ribos'. What 'ribos' itself means, I haven't found out, but the ending
> > '-os' indicates that we're dealing with a kind of sugar.
>
>BTW, it's easier to recognize as 'deoxyribose'.
>
>My dictionary says "ribose" is "from German Ribon(säure), a tetrahydroxyl
>acid from which ribose is obtained : Ribon-, arbitrary alteration of
>English
>arabinose, ribose : (gum) arab(ic) + -in + -ose + Säure, acid."   That's
>quite a big etymology for such a short word.
Ah, I learnt what chemistry I know (not much!) in Swedish, so sometimes I
miss the often slightly different spellings prefered in English. Sorry.

                                                        Andreas
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