margarine

Borrowed from French margarine, itself from acide margarique ("margaric acid"), a term French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul coined from Ancient Greek márgaron, meaning "pearl," because the acid crystallized with a pearly sheen.

The name shifted from describing the pearl-like crystals of margaric acid to naming the fatty substance derived from it, eventually settling on the spread we know today.

The word's ending was shaped by glycérine ("glycerine"), showing how one chemical name's form could nudge the coining of another.