Wiktionary

racemate

English

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WOTD – 29 July 2024

Etymology 1

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Tartaric acid can exist as a racemate (sense 1) formerly known as racemic acid. When crystallized, the sodium-ammonium salt of tartaric acid can separate out into two types of crystal each composed of one isomer, which are mirror images of each other as shown in the illustration.

From racem(ic) +‎ -ate.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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racemate (plural racemates) (chemistry)

  2. A mixture which is racemic (“containing equal amounts of dextrorotatory and levorotatory stereoisomers and therefore not optically active”).
    • 1965, Acta chimica - Volume 44, page 74:
      Тhe greatest racemate contents were found in the products prepared in dimethylformamide and dimethylsulphoxide.
    • 2004, Indra K. Reddy, Reza Mehvar, Chirality in Drug Design and Development, page 424:
      Let us discuss different scenarios that may arise from a racemate consisting of two enantiomers.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From racemic acid +‎ -ate (“salt or ester”).

Noun

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racemate (plural racemates)

  1. (archaic, organic chemistry) Any salt or ester of racemic acid.
Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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From race (“contest where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective”) +‎ -mate (suffix forming nouns having the sense of ‘those with whom what is denoted by the nouns are shared’).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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racemate (plural racemates)

  1. (chiefly sports) One participating in the same race as others.
    • 1977, Richard Lee Hintz, Factors Influencing Racing Performance of the Standardbred Racer, page 28:
      Differences in time at finish, time minus time of winner, and time minus racemate average for various track conditions are given in Tables 15, 16, and 17, respectively.
    • 1981, Virginia Tech Livestock Research Report, page 44:
      Many environmental factors, such as track condition or shape, racing strategy or quality of racemates, modify the expression of true speed by a horse in a race and thereby bias performance records.
    • 1989, EAAP Publication, →ISBN, page 132:
      The interpretation of pace or purse is complicated by the fact that the data reflect not only the performance of the horse but the decisions and behavior of the track officials, the driver, the owner, racemates, etc.
    • 2018, M. Weber, “Rough Start”, in Wild Moments of Sports Car Racing, North Mankato, Minn.: Edge Books, →ISBN, page 15:
      A second three-car pileup happened later on. [Scott] Tucker’s racemate Guy Cosmo avoided the accidents.
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Etymology 4

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From race (“group of people distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage or physical characteristics”) +‎ -mate (suffix forming nouns having the sense of ‘those with whom what is denoted by the nouns are shared’).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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racemate (plural racemates)

  1. (rare) A person of the same racial group as others.
    • 1967, Edward V Abner, David W Lewit, “Racial Contact, Personality, and Group Problem Solving”, in Report Resumes‎[1], ERIC:
      In Figure 1, Negroes and whites alternate around the circle, so that racemates are isolated from one another communicationally. If they communicate, it must be thru a person of the other race.
    • 1994 June 16, “A harmless question”, in alt.skinheads‎[2] (Usenet):
      if you still lay claim to the achievements your ancestors and racemates carried out, you must also share the guilt for their crimes
    • 1996 May 8, “I hate being called "African-American"”, in soc.culture.african.american‎[3] (Usenet):
      I'm 'white' and not so proud of it because of what my 'racemates' have done to the Americans and Africans. :-(
    • 2013 August 14, Evelyn Z. Brodkin, Gregory Marston, Work and the Welfare State: Street-Level Organizations and Workfare Politics (Public Management and Change series)‎[4], Georgetown University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 275:
      She finds an organizational environment with limited prospects for responsiveness and meaningful exchange, even where, theoretically, one might have expected racial and ethnic affinity to produce responsiveness between racemates.
Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “racemate, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “racemate, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Latin

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Adjective

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racēmāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of racēmātus
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