A hydrocarbon radical or chemical group derived from ceroid or cerotic acid, used in organic chemistry nomenclature.
From 'cerotic' or 'cera' (wax) + '-yl' (chemical suffix denoting a univalent radical). The term evolved in 19th-century chemistry to name groups derived from wax-related compounds.
The '-yl' suffix is chemistry's toolkit for building larger molecules—add 'ceryl' to something and you're basically saying 'the wax part got grafted onto another molecule!'
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