Antimicrobic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Acting to prevent the growth or reproduction of microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi
2. Functioning to stop or restrict the development of microbes that can cause infection or spoilage
3. Serving to inhibit or destroy tiny organisms like bacteria to reduce or prevent infection

Etymology: "Antimicrobic" is simply a compound of the prefix "anti-", meaning "against" or "opposing", and "microbic", the adjective from "microbe". The prefix comes from Greek "anti", which carried the sense of "opposite to" or "against", and it has been productive in English for centuries, so attaching it to a word for the tiny organisms called microbes produces a term meaning "working against microbes." The second element, "microbic", is itself built from "micro-", from Greek "mikros" meaning "small", and "-be", a shortened form of "bios", meaning "life". "Microbe" was coined in French in the 1880s, and English adopted the adjective "microbic" in the same period, when bacteriology was new and the idea of invisible life-forms causing disease was becoming established. "Antimicrobic" therefore follows the same pattern as "antibiotic" and similar scientific coinages, combining classical elements to name a property of substances that suppress microbial growth.

Synonyms: antimicrobial, antibiotic, germicidal, sterilizing