A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism.The word ???ascorbic,??? as in ascorbic acid (the name for Vitamin C), means ???no scurvy???.The term 'vitamin' first became popular in the early 1800s as a portmanteau of the words 'vital' and 'mineral', though the actual meaning of the word has developed somewhat since that time.Vitamin A was given the first l