Dimerised

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Combined in pairs to form a dimer, a molecule made of two identical or similar smaller units bonded together
2. Having been linked two by two so that each unit becomes part of a paired molecular structure
3. Chemically bonded into a double unit, meaning two monomer molecules have joined to form one larger molecule

Etymology: "Dimerised" is the past tense of "dimerise", which means to join in pairs. The verb is built from "dimer", a chemist's term for a molecule formed when two identical molecules bond together, with the suffix "-ise" added to turn it into a verb. The "di-" in "dimer" comes from Greek "dis", meaning "twice", and the "-mer" element comes from Greek "meros", meaning "part", so a dimer is literally a two-part unit. The suffix has a longer ancestry than the rest of the word. "-ise" passed into English through Middle French from Late Latin "-izare", which was itself borrowed from Greek "-izein", a verb ending used to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs. English has used it for centuries, so "dimerise" is simply a modern chemical coinage that fits an old pattern.

Synonyms: dimerized