Etymograph

English

mitomycin

Mitomycin comes from Ancient Greek μίτος ‘thread of the warp’.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμίτος1mítos‘thread of the warp’
  2. Englishtodaymitomycin1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English mitomycin

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμίτοςWiktionary, English mitomycinmítos‘thread of the warp’
  2. EnglishtodaymitomycinWiktionary, English mitomycin

A compound of mito- ‘nucleotoxic agent’ + -mycin ‘antibiotic derived from Streptomyces’

Ancient Greek μίτος ‘thread of the warp’

English mito-

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *mey- ‘to attach, bind, strengthen’

mean, met, community, common, minister, commission, minute, mess, communication, meal, ministry, menu, mutual, minor, communist, immune, mere, communicate, missile, min, compromise, commit, ammunition, immunity, mole, dismiss, communism, premise, minus, communal, mural, ammo, municipality, communion, mayhem, noodle, moor, remuneration, commune, intermittent, 76 more

through Ancient Greek μίτος ‘thread of the warp’

mitosis, 2 more

Today it means

noun Any of a family of aziridine-containing natural products isolated from the filamentous bacterium Streptomyces lavendulae, one of which is used as a chemotherapeutic agent.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mitomycin”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek μίτος / mitomycin

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