cephalosporin

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Translingual Cephalosporium Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnusder. Old French -inbor. Middle English -in English -ineclip. English -in English cephalosporin From translingual Cephalosporium (now Acremonium), a genus of fungi, + -in.

1. Any of a class of natural and synthetic antibiotics developed from Acremonium fungi, having a cepham structure.

   “Another important group of antibiotics, the cephalosporins, a class that includes more than twenty-five different drugs, are chemically distinct from the penicillins but act in the same way as cell wall inhibitors, as do vancomycin and bacitracin.”