saccharine

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English

WOTD – 1 December 2020

Pronunciation

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)

  1. (dated) Of or relating to sugar; sugary.
    Synonym: (archaic, rare) saccharous
  2. (dated) Containing a large or excessive amount of sugar.
    Synonyms: cloying, sickly, sickly sweet
  3. (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
  4. (chiefly botany, geology) Resembling granulated sugar; saccharoid.
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Noun

saccharine (uncountable)

  1. (dated) Something which is saccharine or sweet; sugar.
  2. (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.
Translations

Etymology 2

From saccharin +‎ -ine (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).

Adjective

saccharine (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to saccharin (“a white, crystalline powder, C7H5NO3S, used as an artificial sweetener in food products”).
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

A variant of saccharin.

Noun

saccharine (plural saccharines)

  1. Alternative spelling of saccharin

References

  1. ^ “saccharine, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022; compare “saccharine, adj. and n..”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1909.

French

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

saccharine f (plural saccharines)

  1. saccharin

Further reading

Latin

Adjective

saccharīne

  1. vocative masculine singular of saccharīnus
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