Origin Story
Few people know that nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco, takes its name from a person's surname. In the 16th century, Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, believed the tobacco arriving from the New World was a medicinal herb. Around 1561 he sent tobacco seeds and powder from Lisbon to the French court, championing it as a remedy for headaches. Thanks to him, tobacco spread rapidly among the French upper class. Scholars later named the plant Nicotiana in his honor, and in the 19th century the alkaloid extracted from it was christened nicotine. The name of a man who spread tobacco believing it was good for you now lives on in one of the hardest addictions to break.
Jean Nicot regarded tobacco as a cure-all, yet his own name has become one of the most frequently cited words in modern anti-smoking campaigns — a true irony of history.
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Online Etymology Dictionarynicotine (n.): 1819, from French nicotine, from Modern Latin Nicotiana, formal botanical name for the tobacco plant, named for Jean Nicot (c. 1530-1600), French ambassador to Portugal
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Oxford English Dictionarynicotine: from French nicotine, from Nicotiana (the tobacco genus), named after Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco to France
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Merriam-Webster DictionaryFrench, from New Latin Nicotiana, from Jean Nicot, who sent tobacco seeds to the French court
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
The diplomat Nicot is hiding inside nicotine. Remember it as "the name of the man who spread it thinking it was medicine."
""The name of a man who spread it believing it a cure-all is now etched into the hardest addiction to break.""
