Glutaryl

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical radical derived from glutaric acid, a five-carbon dicarboxylic acid, that is found in many organic compounds
2. An acyl group formed by removing the hydroxyl groups from glutaric acid, which bonds to other molecules in biochemical reactions
3. The divalent acyl radical of glutaric acid, a five-carbon dicarboxylic acid, used in organic chemistry and biochemistry

Etymology: Glutaryl is a chemist's word built from "glutaric," which itself was coined in the nineteenth century from "glutamic" and "tartaric," two chemical adjectives. Its root "gluten" is the sticky protein in wheat, and the name came from Latin "gluten," meaning glue. The word "glutamic" was formed from "gluten" with the suffix "-ic," and "glutaric" blended "glutamic" with "tartaric," the latter tracing back through Medieval Latin "tartarum" and Medieval Greek "tártaron" to the dregs that form in wine casks. The chain of names shows how chemists worked from one substance to the next. Once "glutaric" named the acid, the suffix "-yl" was attached to mean a radical, the part of a molecule that stays together through a reaction. The English "-yl" ultimately comes from the French "hylè" and Greek "hū́lē," meaning wood or matter, so glutaryl names the glutaric-acid group as a bundle of atoms.