the.com/alkaloid

means A nitrogen-based compound made by plants (or fungi) that has a potent, often bitter effect on animal nervous systems — caffeine, nicotine, morphine, and cocaine are all alkaloids.

from Built from 'alkali' plus the Greek-derived suffix '-oid', meaning 'alkali-like.' The term was coined in the early 1800s by chemists who noticed these plant compounds behaved chemically like alkalis — basic, able to form salts with acids. Early chemistry was heavy on naming-by-resemblance, and 'alkali' itself traces back further to Arabic 'al-qaly', the ashes of saltwort plants burned to make soap. So the word's lineage runs: plant ashes, to an Arabic chemical term, to a European chemistry suffix, to the poisons and stimulants science eventually found hiding in leaves and seeds.