ammonia

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin ammonia, a name coined in 1782 by the Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman for the gas obtained from sal ammoniac.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin name of sal ammoniac is sāl ammōniacus (“salt of Ammon”),^[6][7][8] from ammōniacus, Ancient Greek ἀμμωνιακόν (ammōniakón, “belonging to Ammon”),^[2][9][10] from Ἄμμων (Ámmōn), the Greek name of the Egyptian god Amun,^[2][7] Egyptian jmn.^[7][6] The salt and a gum were both named after the region of Libya near the shrine of Jupiter Ammon, where they were obtained.^[2][9][11] In Middle English, from about 1330, the salt was armoniac,^[11] from Old French armoniac and Medieval Latin armōniacum, an altered form of the Latin;^[11][9] the OED thinks the change may come from association with Ancient Greek ἁρμονία (harmonía, “fastening, joining”), because gum ammoniac was used as a cement and sal ammoniac in joining metals.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A colourless gas with a sharp smell and a strong alkaline reaction, a compound of hydrogen and nitrogen: 1799, in A. and C. R. Aikin's Syllabus of Lectures on Chemistry.^[2][3][11]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories notes that the New Latin term reached English less than two decades after Bergman coined it.^[5] The gas had also been known as spirit of hartshorn and as volatile or animal alkali.^[3] From about 1850 ammonia, or liquid ammonia, was also the solution of the gas in water, the form sold commercially.^[2][12] From 1863 chemists extended the name to compounds in which other atoms or radicals replace one or more of its hydrogen atoms.^[2] Merriam-Webster tells the story that camels' urine was collected near the temple of Ammon, and that for centuries the Egyptians heated it with soot and sea salt to make sal ammoniac;^[5] Etymonline quotes Shipley's version, that the salt was first prepared from the sands where camels waited while their masters consulted the oracle,^[3] and Weekley also says the salt was first obtained from camel dung there.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – armoniac, sal ammoniac, in Middle English.^[11]
• 1782 – ammonia coined in New Latin by Torbern Bergman.^[2][3]
• 1799 – the gas, in English.^[2][11]
• c. 1850 – a solution of ammonia in water.^[2]
• 1863 – in chemistry, a series of compounds analogous to ammonia.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A colourless gas with a sharp, pungent smell, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen (NH3), used to make fertilizers and nitric acid and as a refrigerant.^[12][6][2]
2. A solution of this gas in water, also called liquid ammonia: She wiped the windows with diluted ammonia.^[12][6][2]

Word family

• amatol
• ammoniate
• ammonic
• ammonification
• ammonify
• ammonium
• ammonia water

Related words

• amide
• amine
• amino-
• sal ammoniac
• ammonite
• Ammon

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins