chromosome

Definitions

chromo- (Greek chrōma, 'color') + -some (Greek sōma, 'body') = 'color body.' The name is misleading: chromosomes aren't colored. They were named in the 1880s because, when biologists stained cells for the microscope, these structures soaked up the dye much more strongly than anything else — they were 'the bodies that take the stain.' Only later did we learn they package our DNA.

Why It Means This

Don't be fooled by the 'color' root — a chromosome is not a colored thing. The word freezes a 19th-century lab habit: cells are nearly transparent, so scientists soaked them in dyes to see them, and these particular structures grabbed the stain hardest. So 'chromosome' literally means 'the body that takes the color (the dye),' a name given purely for how it behaved on a microscope slide, decades before anyone understood it carries genes.

Common Collocations

• 1.X chromosomeX 染色体
• 2.Y chromosomeY 染色体
• 3.pair of chromosomes一对染色体
• 4.human chromosome人类染色体
• 5.chromosome 2121 号染色体

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Humans normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes in each cell.

• 2.

  Sex is determined by the X and Y chromosomes.

• 3.

  An extra copy of chromosome 21 causes Down syndrome.

• 4.

  The damaged chromosome failed to divide properly during cell division.

Easily Confused

chromosome vs gene vs DNA — DNA is the molecule that stores the code. A gene is a short stretch of DNA that codes for one trait. A chromosome is the whole packaged bundle of DNA (many genes) that you can see under a microscope. Scale: DNA < gene < chromosome.