Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

OT: 'deoxiribos'

From:Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Date:Sunday, April 22, 2001, 12:39
----- 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. *Muke! -- http://www.southern.edu/~alrivera/