benzene

Etymology

According to the revised OED, it is partly borrowed from French benzène, introduced by the chemist A. Laurent in 1835, and partly borrowed from German Benzen, first found in 1836 in a German translation of Laurent's paper.^[2] The French word is an alteration, with the suffix -ene, of benzine, from German Benzin, the name the German chemist Eilhardt Mitscherlich gave the hydrocarbon in 1833,^[2][3][4][5] formed from Benzoesäure (“benzoic acid”), from which he obtained it by distillation, and the suffix -in.^[3][6][4][2] Other dictionaries describe it as formed from benzoic acid and -ene,^{[7][8][9][10][11]} or from benz- and -ene in the International Scientific Vocabulary.^[12][13] Klein, Onions and Ayto credit the spelling benzene to A. W. Hofmann, Ayto in the 1870s.^[4][14][5] Benzoic acid is named from benzoin, a resin from trees of the genus Styrax, which comes through Romance from Arabic لُبَان جَاوِيّ (lubān jāwī, “frankincense of Java”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The liquid hydrocarbon C6H6: the OED's first quotation for the form benzene is from the Philosophical Magazine of 1841.^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate date the word to 1835, when the substance was still called benzine in English,^[3][6][12] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1833, the year of Mitscherlich's name.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The hydrocarbon had several names in its first decades: Mitscherlich's Benzin (1833), Liebig's benzol (1834) and Laurent's benzène.^[5][14][2] Benzene became the standard chemical name,^[5][14] while benzine passed from about 1863 to a different substance, a mixture of light hydrocarbons distilled from petroleum.^[2][3][11] In English benzol came to be used especially for impure benzene.^[11][14] From the 1870s the word also entered the names of compounds derived from it, such as nitrobenzene, and combinations such as benzene hexachloride (1877), an insecticide.^[15] Its six carbon atoms form the benzene ring found in most aromatic compounds.^[7][16]

Timeline

• 1841 – the hydrocarbon C6H6, in the form benzene.^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1835, with the earlier form benzine.^[3][6][12]
• 1877 – in combinations such as benzene hexachloride.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A colourless, volatile, flammable and toxic liquid aromatic hydrocarbon, C6H6, obtained from coal tar and petroleum and used as a solvent, as a fuel and in making other chemicals such as styrene and phenol.^{[13][16][7][2]}

Word family

• benzenoid

Related words

• benzine
• benzoin
• benzoic
• benzol
• -ene

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c d Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins