The word vitamin was coined by: when: How:

The word vitamin was coined by Casimir Funk; in 1912; when he was searching for a constituent in rice bran which could cure beriberi. The missing substance he called 'vitamine' comes from vita meaning necessary for life and amine denoting that the anti-beriberi factor contained nitrogen. He hypothesized that nutritional deficiencies which were observed in the past such as scurvy, pellagra, and rickets were due to the lack of "vitamine".