Describing a compound that is the active ingredient in aspirin, made by adding an acetyl group to salicylic acid.
From acetyl + salicylic (from salicylic acid, which comes from salicin found in willow bark). The term was coined in the late 1800s when Bayer chemists synthesized this more stable form of the ancient pain-relieving compound.
Aspirin's scientific name is acetylsalicylic acid, and it revolutionized medicine by being gentler on the stomach than earlier salicylates, yet the discovery happened almost by accident in a dye factory.
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