Chemoreceptors

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Sensory cells responsible for identifying chemical signals in various environments
2. Structures that are tuned to react to alterations in chemical concentrations, facilitating the perception of taste and smell
3. Specialized cells that sense and respond to chemical changes in the surroundings

Etymology: Chemoreceptors are named by joining two parts: "chemo-", from the Greek "khumeia", the root behind "chemistry", and "receptor", from the Latin "receptor", meaning one who receives. The Greek word "khumeia" originally referred to the art of mixing metals and alloys and the transmutation of substances, and it passed into Arabic as "al-kimiya'" before returning to Europe through Medieval Latin "alchemia", the source of English "alchemy". Early modern scientists in Europe revived the Greek stem as "chemo-" in New Latin, and it was later attached to "receptor" to give the compound. The result is a term that, unlike its ancestors, describes a biological rather than a laboratory activity. Its first element carries the memory of alchemy's metal-working, while its second carries the idea of a surface or structure that takes in an outside signal. Read together, the word names cells defined by the act of receiving chemical information from their surroundings.