Pasteurisation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A process involving heating food or liquid to a specific temperature to eliminate dangerous microorganisms while preserving quality
2. Heating consumable liquids or foods to destroy harmful bacteria and pathogens without damaging the product
3. A treatment method that uses controlled heat to reduce microbial contamination in food or beverages for safety

Etymology: Louis Pasteur, the French chemist, never heated milk to make it safe; he was working on wine and beer when he discovered that spoilage was caused by living microbes. In the 1860s he showed that gentle heating could kill those organisms without ruining the drink, and the process was named after him. The word "pasteurisation" is therefore a tribute built from a surname, not a descriptive coinage from Latin or Greek roots. The English form comes from French "pasteurisation", itself formed from Pasteur's name with the suffix that turns a verb into a noun of process, here "-isation" meaning the act of making or treating in a particular way. The surname passed into the language as a verb, "to pasteurise", and the noun followed from it. Because the word honours a person rather than describing a substance, the same method is sometimes called by other names in different countries, but the French-derived term is the one English adopted.

Synonyms: pasteurization