saccharine
English
WOTD – 1 December 2020
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsækəɹaɪn/, /-ɹɪn/, /-ɹiːn/, /ˈsækɹɪn/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsækəɹɪn/, /-ɹən/, /ˈsækɹɪn/
Audio (AU) (file) - Homophone: saccharin
- Hyphenation: sac‧cha‧rine
Etymology 1
From New Latin saccharum (“sugar”) + English -ine (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).[1] Saccharum is derived from saccharon (“syrupy liquid from bamboo or reeds”), from Ancient Greek σάκχαρον (sákkharon), from Pali sakkharā (“sugar; gravel; granule, grain; crystal; potsherd”), from Sanskrit शर्करा (śárkarā, “ground or candied sugar; cotton sugar, sugarmaple; gravel, grit, pebbles; potsherd”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂ (“boulder; gravel”).
Adjective
saccharine (comparative more saccharine, superlative most saccharine)
- (dated) Of or relating to sugar; sugary.
- Synonym: (archaic, rare) saccharous
- (dated) Containing a large or excessive amount of sugar.
- Synonyms: cloying, sickly, sickly sweet
- (figurative, derogatory) Excessively sweet in action or disposition, especially if romantic or sentimental to the point of ridiculousness; sickly sweet, syrupy.
- Synonyms: cloying, precious, saccharined, sickly, twee
- Antonym: nonsaccharine
- (chiefly botany, geology) Resembling granulated sugar; saccharoid.
Derived terms
- mucoso-saccharine
- nonsaccharine
- saccharined (adjective)
- saccharinely
- saccharinity
Translations
of or relating to sugar — see also sugary
|
containing a large or excessive amount of sugar
excessively sweet, especially if romantic or sentimental to the point of ridiculousness
|
resembling granulated sugar — see saccharoid
See also
Noun
saccharine (uncountable)
- (dated) Something which is saccharine or sweet; sugar.
- (figurative) Sentimentalism.
- 1960, H[erbert] E[rnest] Bates, An Aspidistra in Babylon: Four Novellas, London: Michael Joseph, →OCLC, page 31:
- If Captain Archie Blaine regarded these outpourings as so much adolescent saccharine he never revealed it by a single word, a smile or the flicker of an eye.
Adjective
saccharine (not comparable)
- Of or relating to saccharin (“a white, crystalline powder, C7H5NO3S, used as an artificial sweetener in food products”).
Derived terms
Translations
of or relating to saccharin
Etymology 3
A variant of saccharin.
References
- “saccharine, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022; compare “saccharine, adj. and n..”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1909.
French
Alternative forms
- saccarine (post-1990 spelling)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sa.ka.ʁin/
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “saccharine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
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