The building blocks of English

Affixes

lecith(o)-

Egg yolk.

Greek lekithos, yolk of an egg.

Lecithin is another name for phosphatidylcholine, a substance widely distributed in animal tissues and egg yolk; lecithinase is another name for phospholipase, an enzyme which hydrolyses phosphatidylcholine; in zoology, lecithotrophic refers to the larvae of certain marine invertebrates that feed on the yolk of the egg from which they have emerged.