epinephrine

English

Structure diagram of epinephrine

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi

Proto-Hellenic *epí

Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí)

Ancient Greek ἐπῐ- (epĭ-)

Proto-Indo-European *negʷʰrós

Proto-Hellenic *nekʷʰrós

Ancient Greek νεφρός (nephrós)

Proto-Indo-European *-nós

Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos

Proto-Italic *-īnos

Latin -īnusder.

Old French -inbor.

Middle English -in

English -ine

English epinephrine

From Ancient Greek ἐπι- (epi-, “upon”) + νεφρός (nephrós, “kidney”) + -ine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛp.ɪˈnɛ.fɹɪn/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General American):

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Noun

epinephrine (countable and uncountable, plural epinephrines)

1. (biochemistry, organic chemistry, medicine) A catecholamine hormone and neurotransmitter; as a hormone, secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress (when it stimulates the autonomic nervous system); as a neurotransmitter, synthesized from norepinephrine. It is also used as a medication.

   Synonym: adrenaline

   • 2023 November 1, “‘We’re sedating women with self-care’: how we became obsessed with wellness”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     At the ER, after deflating me with a cocktail of epinephrine, a steroid and an antihistamine, the doctors scolded me for not coming in more quickly: I could have died of asphyxiation.

   • 2024 August 9, Meg Tirrell, “First nasal spray epinephrine drug for emergency allergic reactions gets FDA approval”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     “Anyone who has experienced or witnessed an anaphylaxis reaction knows it can be very stressful deciding when to inject epinephrine to themselves or a child and often delay,” Dr. Jonathan Spergel, chief of the allergy program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a news release from ARS Pharmaceuticals.

Synonyms

• (hormone and neurotransmitter): 4,5-β-trihydroxy-N-methylphenethylamine

Hypernyms

• (hormone): catecholamine
• (neurotransmitter): monoamine, phenethylamine

Derived terms

• deoxyepinephrine
• dipivefrine
• epipen
• EpiPen
• metanephrine
• norepinephrine
• phenylephrine
• racepinephrine

Translations

hormone and neurotransmitter

• Catalan: epinefrina f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 腎上腺素 / 肾上腺素 (zh) (shènshàngxiànsù)

• Esperanto: adrenalino (eo)
• Finnish: epinefriini (fi)
• French: épinéphrine (fr) f
• German: Epinephrin n
• Greek: επινεφρίνη f (epinefríni)
• Hungarian: epinefrin (hu)
• Ido: adrenalino (io)
• Indonesian: epinefrin
• Italian: epinefrina f
• Japanese: エピネフリン (epinefurin)
• Korean: 에피네프린 (epinepeurin)
• Polish: epinefryna f
• Portuguese: epinefrina f
• Russian: эпинефри́н (ru) m (epinefrín), адренали́н (ru) m (adrenalín)
• Spanish: epinefrina (es) f
• Swedish: adrenalin (sv) n
• Turkish: adrenalin (tr), epinefrin
• Ukrainian: епінефри́н m (epinefrýn)

Further reading

• adrenaline on Wikipedia.Wikipedia