Ester

How to spell ester

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ester

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ester mean?

1. nounAn organic compound formed when an acid reacts with an alcohol, often responsible for fruity smells and flavours.

Ester in a sentence

• The sweet smell of ripe banana comes largely from a single fragrant ester.

• The chemistry lab synthesised an ester by combining an acid with an alcohol.

Where does ester come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a relatively young word, coined in 1848 by the German chemist Leopold Gmelin to name a class of organic compounds. He built it as a contraction of the German Essigäther, meaning 'ethyl acetate', which itself joins Essig, 'vinegar', and Äther, 'ether'. Vinegar supplied the acid half of the idea, since esters form when an acid reacts with an alcohol, and the word neatly compressed a clumsy compound into a tidy four-letter label. German chemistry was hugely influential in the nineteenth century, so the term passed quickly into English and other languages with its spelling intact. Because it is a deliberately invented scientific word rather than an inherited one, it has no ancient root to fall back on, which is why the simple but unintuitive 'ester' spelling can trip up writers who half-expect a longer or fancier form. It is also a near-twin of the personal name Esther, even though the two are completely unrelated.

How the word is built

• ester (a coined chemical term, blended from German Essig 'vinegar' and Äther 'ether')