amine

Etymology

It is formed from English am- + -ine, the first syllable of ammonia with the chemical suffix.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Collins, Dictionary.com and the American Heritage Dictionary take the first part from ammonium instead.^[7][8][9] The OED notes that -amine had appeared slightly earlier as the end of compound names, at first borrowed from French, such as ethylamine (1849), methylamine (1850) and phenylamine (1850), and quotes the chemist Charles Daubeny, who in 1851 proposed that the ending -ine be kept for natural vegetable alkalies and amine for those produced artificially by substituting hydrocarbons for the hydrogen atoms of ammonia.^[2] Klein compares amide, imine and vitamin.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any of the organic compounds derived from ammonia by replacing hydrogen atoms with alkyl or aryl groups: 1852, in the Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1857, Etymonline to 1863, and Dictionary.com to 1860–65.^[10][3][8]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its chemical meaning; it serves as the base of the combining form amino-.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that amines are classed as primary, secondary or tertiary by the number of hydrogen atoms of ammonia that are replaced.^[10]

Timeline

• 1849 – -amine as the end of compound names such as ethylamine.^[2]
• 1852 – amine, an organic compound derived from ammonia.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1857, and Etymonline to 1863.^[10][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. In chemistry, any of a class of organic bases derived from ammonia by replacing one or more of its hydrogen atoms with hydrocarbon or other organic groups: Many drugs are amines.^[7][10][2]

Word family

• amino-
• aminase
• arylamine
• cyclohexylamine
• hexosamine
• ketamine

Related words

• ammonia
• ammonium
• amide
• amino acid
• imine
• vitamin

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster