green-colored stuff in plants, 1819, from French chlorophyle (1818), coined by French chemists Pierre-Joseph Pelletier (1788-1842) and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou (1795-1877) from chloro-, from Latinized form of Greek khlōros "pale green, greenish-yellow" (from PIE root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives denoting "green" and "yellow") + phyllon "a leaf" (from suffixed form of PIE root *bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom").
