chitin

See also: Chitin

English

Etymology

From French chitine, from Latin chitōn (“mollusk”), from Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn). See also chiton.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kīʹtĭn, IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪtɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪtɪn

Noun

chitin (countable and uncountable, plural chitins)

1. (biochemistry) A complex polysaccharide, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi; thought to be responsible for some forms of asthma in humans.
   • 1880, Arthur Gamgee, A Text-book of the Physiological Chemistry of the Animal Body‎^[1], Macmillan, page 299:

     Chitin usually occurs throughout Invertebrates in the form of an investment to the outermost cellular layer or ectoderm.

   • 2004 September 11, New Scientist, page 19:

     The robot’s energy source is the sugar in the polysaccharide called chitin that makes up a fly’s exoskeleton.

Derived terms

• chitinaceous
• chitinase
• chitinization
• chitinize
• chitinless
• chitinlike
• chitinoid
• chitinolysis
• chitinous
• lipochitin
• polychitin
• pseudochitin

 

Translations

polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in arthropod and fungi

• Armenian: խիտին (hy) (xitin)
• Bulgarian: хитин m (hitin)
• Catalan: quitina f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 甲殼素／甲壳素 (zh) (jiǎqiàosù), 幾丁質／几丁质 (zh) (jīdīngzhì)

• Czech: chitin (cs) m
• Esperanto: kitino
• Finnish: kitiini (fi)
• French: chitine (fr) f
• German: Chitin (de)
• Hindi: कठिनि (kaṭhini)
• Indonesian: kitin (id)
• Italian: chitina (it) f
• Japanese: キチン (kichin)
• Kannada: ಕೈಟಿನ್ (kaiṭin)
• Kazakh: хитин (xitin)
• Korean: 키틴 (kitin), 갑각소(甲殼素) (gapgakso)
• Malay: kitin
• Occitan: quitina f
• Persian: کیتین
• Portuguese: quitina f
• Romanian: chitină (ro) f
• Russian: хити́н (ru) m (xitín)
• Serbo-Croatian: hitin (sh) m
• Spanish: quitina f
• Tamil: கைட்டின் (kaiṭṭiṉ)
• Thai: ไคทิน, ไคติน
• Turkish: kitin (tr)
• Ukrainian: хіти́н m (xitýn)
• Uzbek: xitin

References

• “chitin”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “chitin”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• itchin'