Warfarin belongs to a previously-covered class of molecules known as the coumarins. Coumarins see use both as anticoagulants (in people) and poisons (in certain small animals).
Warfarin works by inhibiting a crucial step in vitamin K metabolism. Its structure isn't so far off:
Vitamin K is named for the German koagulation. We get a lot of our chemical vocabulary from German - it wasn't that long ago that American chemistry undergrads had to take German as part of their degree. This is no longer the case, and it probably leads to a lot of frustration the first time people are looking over a periodic table: Ok, hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, Na? K?
These come from the German natrium and kalium. If it weren't for English's Germanic roots, I guarantee you that chemical terms would make even less sense!
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Many years ago I used to walk by the Warf (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation) building in Madison amazed that it was built partly because of this drug, and its patent. I hope it continues a lonng time.
Wasn't it first discovered in fermented clover after a bunch of livestock bled to death after ingesting it? Not quite as nice as the discovery of artificial sweeteners, but another interesting serendipitous find.
The first off-campus house I (and six of my closest friends) first lived in as an undergrad had a mouse problem. At one point, we had both poison (could've been Warfarin, I suppose, but definitely an anticoagulant) AND spring traps out. All I can say is that if a mouse is unfortunate enough to gorge on anticoagulants and then survive long enough to find a trap, you may learn that a tiny mouse contains a shocking amount of blood. I don't think I'll ever forget the gruesome sight of the puddle on the kitchem floor one morning...
The word natrium, as well as many other 'strange' looking elemental symbols, actually have their roots in Latin.
Na - Natrium
K - Kalium
Cu - Cuprum
Sn - Stannum
Sb - Stibium
Hg - Hydrargyrum (actually Latinized Greek)
W - Wolfram
Pb - Plumbum
Just a little food for thought, I know all those years studying Latin would pay off...
Looks like you are right, Kalium is apparently from Arabic actually! Thanks for the correction, I just deleted that part of the post, since there wasn't really a way to rework it in a way that made sense.
Just to be explicit, yes, warfarin is in fact named for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The joke etymology "Wisconsin Anti-Rat Federation" was also used.