the.com/steroid

means A class of organic compounds built on a four-ring carbon skeleton, including hormones like testosterone and cortisol, and the synthetic drugs derived from them that reduce inflammation or build muscle mass.

from Built from 'sterol' plus '-oid' (meaning 'resembling'). Sterol itself comes from 'cholesterol,' which fuses the Greek 'chole' (bile) and 'stereos' (solid, hard) — because cholesterol was first isolated from gallstones, literally hard bile. So a steroid is, etymologically, something shaped like a solid bile-substance — a humble, unglamorous origin for a word now synonymous with superhuman biceps.