What’s An Enzyme?
The word ‘enzyme’ conjures up scientific images, but has also come to have a figurative meaning which borrows from its scientific heritage. Literally an ‘enzyme’ is ‘a protein substance produced in living cells that influences a chemical reaction within a plant or animal without being changed itself’ (World Book Dictionary). ‘Enzymes’ speed up reactions, they act as catalysts. As with many scientific words, the word enzyme hails from the Greek. ‘Enzoumos’ means ‘leavened’ and was used to describe the role of yeast in the bread making process – an important image to keep in mind.
The word enzyme has crossed the boundaries from the purely scientific world to have a more common usage which the Macquarie Dictionary describes as ‘a person or thing that acts as an agent in stimulating or causing change’. Before we finish tracing the meaning of the word, let us look at the meaning of ‘leaven’ which comes from the Latin word ‘levare’ meaning ‘to lift’. The Oxford Dictionary describes its figurative meaning as a ‘pervasive transforming influence’ as a noun and ‘to permeate and transform’ as a verb.
We know that enzymes:
Our understanding of the origins of the word also tells us that enzymes:
Enzyme International: