Nicotine

Nicotine, the addictive alkaloid found in tobacco, is another of the many English eponyms of French origin. The formal name for the tobacco plant is the Latin Nicotiana tabacum, and it was named after Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal in the 1500s.

Jean Nicot de Villemain, a French diplomat and scholar became famous for being the first to bring tobacco to France, including snuff tobacco. He sent tobacco and seeds to Paris in 1560 and then presented it to the French King. He also promoted its medicinal use, since smoking was believed to protect against illness, particularly the plague.

The fashionable people of Paris began to use the plant, making Nicot a celebrity.

The plant was called Nicotina, but nicotine later came to refer specifically to the particular chemical in the plant.

Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, CC BY 2.5, Link