Relating to or produced from hematoxylin, a dye extracted from logwood used in microscopy.
From hematoxylin + -ic. Hematoxylin itself comes from Greek haima (blood) + xylon (wood), named because the dye was extracted from logwood tree heart and was blood-red in color.
Hematoxylin is one of the most important tools in medicine—it's the 'H' in 'H&E stain,' the standard way pathologists color tissue samples to see them under a microscope. Without this 500-year-old dye from a Central American tree, modern diagnosis would be impossible!
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