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Glite Dictionary
to esterify

to esterify

1 9.9
To make an ester from an acid and an alcohol
  • verb
  • /ˈɛstərɪˌfaɪ/
  • Specialized
: esterificar
  • To create a new flavor, we need to esterify the fruit juice with alcohol and citric acid.

Examples

  • I'm sure you remember that if we esterify that alcohol.

  • All estrogen users were taking conjugated or esterified estrogens.

    Academic text (1999)

  • These data underscore the importance to metabolic health of sequestering excess free fatty acids in esterified form (TAG) within LDs.

    Blog text (27)

  • Organic chemists commonly esterify compounds during the synthesis of complex molecules.

  • The process to esterify the fatty acids improves the overall quality of the biodiesel.

Surface Forms

esterify infinitive
esterified past
esterified past participle
esterifying present participle
esterifies third person singular

Morphology

esterify = ester (transparent) = ester + ify

Derived by the productive verb-forming suffix '-ify' meaning 'to make or transform into an ester', which is directly interpretable from 'ester'.

Etymology

The word esterify comes from ester, a chemical name that was named long ago after a word for 'vinegar', and the ending -ify, which means 'to make'. So to esterify something is to 'make' it into an ester, which fits the modern chemical meaning of forming an ester from an acid and an alcohol.