chitin

From French chitine, from Latin chitōn (“mollusk”). See also chiton.

• enPR: ʹkītĭn, IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪtɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪtɪn

chitin (countable and uncountable, plural chitins)

1. (biochemistry) A complex polysaccharide, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi; thought to be responsible for some forms of asthma in humans.
   • 1880, Arthur Gamgee, A Text-book of the Physiological Chemistry of the Animal Body, Macmillan, p. 299

     Chitin usually occurs throughout Invertebrates in the form of an investment to the outermost cellular layer or ectoderm.

   • 2004, New Scientist, 11 Sep 2004, p.19

     The robot’s energy source is the sugar in the polysaccharide called chitin that makes up a fly’s exoskeleton.

• chitin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “chitin” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

• itchin'