Margarine
The French inventor of margarine, Hippolyte Mege-Mouries, got the term from another Frenchman, biochemist Michel-Eugene Chevreuil. He named “margaric acid” (found in animal fat, the original basis of margarine) after the Greek margarites, which means “pearl,” because he thought the way light hit the acid crystals he was studying looked like a shimmering pearl. Can you believe it?