albumen

Etymology

A learned borrowing from Late Latin albūmen (“egg white, albumen; type of eye disease”), which also gave Late Middle English albuminium (“clear fluid in the eyeball between the cornea and lens, aqueous humour”). It was formed from Latin albus (“white”, adjective) — ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *albʰós (“white”, adjective) — and -men (a suffix forming nouns), modelled on ferrūmen (“cement; glue”). The plural albumina is likewise a learned borrowing, from Late Latin albūmina.