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noun
A nitrogenous substance in fireflies, glowworms and marine animals, once believed to be responsible for their luminescence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, microbiology, natural-sciences, physical-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From Latin noctilūca (“firefly”) + -ine. Term coined by British scientist Thomas Lamb Phipson (1833–1908). It appeared first in his article On noctilucine, the phosphorescent principle of luminous animals, published in The chemical new, vol. 32, no. 832, on November 5, 1875.
Across languages
2 source translations are retained for this English entry.
