Idarubicin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A cytotoxic anthracycline drug used in chemotherapy to treat certain leukemias by interfering with cancer cell DNA replication
2. A powerful anticancer medication from the anthracycline family, given to patients with some types of acute leukemia to halt rapid cell division
3. An antitumor agent belonging to the anthracycline class that is administered intravenously to fight aggressive blood cancers

Etymology: Idarubicin is a modern pharmaceutical coinage, not a word with an ancient history. Its name was built to signal its chemical family: the "-rubicin" ending links it to daunorubicin, the anthracycline antibiotic from which it was derived. The "-rubicin" stem itself comes from "rubicus," the Latin word for red, a reference to the colour of these drug compounds. The first part, "ida," is an arbitrary element with no meaning of its own; it was chosen to distinguish this molecule from its parent, so the name records a family resemblance rather than a description of what the drug does.