Bombasin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A peptide of fourteen amino acids, first isolated from the skin of a frog, that acts as a hormone and neurotransmitter in the body
2. A small chain of amino acids originally found in amphibian skin that functions as a signaling molecule regulating digestion and appetite
3. A neuropeptide first identified in frog skin that works as a hormone and brain chemical influencing the stomach and gut

Etymology: Before it named a frog hormone, this spelling named a cloth. Bombazine is a fabric, and the spelling bombasin came into English from Middle French, which took it from Late Latin "bombasinum". That in turn comes from "bombyx", the Latin word for silkworm, so the cloth's name points back to silk. The frog substance is usually spelled bombesin. It is named for the toad genus Bombina, whose fire-bellied toads yielded it when it was isolated in the early 1970s. The resemblance to the cloth's name is a coincidence of sound, not a shared history: the hormone's name comes from the toads, not the silkworm.