Hydrolysable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being decomposed or broken apart by a chemical reaction with water, as certain esters, salts and polymers are
2. Describing a substance that water can split into smaller molecules through hydrolysis, a common chemical process
3. Able to undergo hydrolysis, meaning it can be chemically decomposed when it comes into contact with water

Etymology: Hydrolysable is a modern scientific coinage, built from two parts that are each much older than the word itself. The first part, "hydro-", comes from the Greek "hydor", meaning water, and appears in English as a combining form in countless chemistry and science terms. The second part, "lyse", comes from the Greek "lysis", meaning loosening or breaking apart, and is the root behind "analysis" and "paralysis". Chemists joined them to describe a substance that can be split apart by water, with "hydrolysis" as the process of that splitting. The ending "-able" is an ordinary English suffix, inherited through Old French from Latin "-abilis", meaning capable of being or capable of. Attaching it to "hydrolyze" produces a plain descriptive adjective: a compound that water can break down. The word therefore tells you exactly what it does, with no metaphor involved. Its earlier history is simply the history of its pieces, since the chemistry it names only needed a precise label once scientists began studying water-driven reactions in detail.

Synonyms: hydrolyzable