Homogentisate

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A salt or ester derived from homogentisic acid, a compound involved in the breakdown of the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine in the body
2. Any chemical salt or ester formed from homogentisic acid, an organic acid that appears as an intermediate in amino acid metabolism
3. The anion or ester form of homogentisic acid, a metabolic intermediate whose buildup is associated with the disorder alkaptonuria

Etymology: Homogentisate is a chemist's name for the salt or ester of homogentisic acid, a compound that sits in the middle of how the body breaks down the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. The word is built in the most ordinary way chemical nomenclature works: the acid's name, homogentisic, with the standard suffix "-ate" added to name its salts and esters. Anyone who knows that "-ate" marks a salt of an "-ic" acid, as in "sulfate" from "sulfuric," can read the whole word at a glance. The acid's own name explains the rest. "Homogentisic" combines "homo-," from the Greek "homos," meaning "same," with "gentisic," the name of a related acid derived from gentisin, a substance first obtained from the yellow gentian root. The name signals that homogentisic acid is closely related to gentisic acid, differing only by a single extra carbon group, which is why chemists chose a shared stem for the pair.