Pectic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to or characteristic of pectin, a substance found in plant cell walls that gels when heated with sugar and acid
2. Describing qualities connected with pectin, the natural carbohydrate that helps thicken jams and jellies
3. Related to the chemical compound pectin, which is a gel-forming polysaccharide in fruits and plants

Etymology: The key surprise is that "pectic" comes from a Greek word for curdling. Ancient Greek "pēktikós" meant "curdling," and it derived from "pēktós," "curdled," which in turn came from "pḗgnumi," "to stiffen" or "to fix firmly." The same root gave Greek a whole family of words about things turning solid or congealing, which is a fitting ancestry for a substance that makes jam set. The modern chemistry comes from the noun "pectin," a coinage built on that Greek root, to name the gelling substance extracted from fruit. "Pectic" then takes the regular English adjectival ending "-ic," so the word simply means "of or relating to pectin." Chemists use it in phrases such as "pectic acid" and "pectic substances," the family of plant polysaccharides that pectin belongs to.