Etymologically
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fluoride

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 01:35. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈflʊəˌɹaɪd/, /ˈflɔːˌɹaɪd/[1]
  • US: /ˈflʊɚˌaɪd/, /ˈflɔɹˌaɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English fluorine + -ide,[2][3][4][5][6] with the stem fluor- of the element's name.[3][7][8] The OED thinks that the later forms were partly modelled on German Fluorid, itself recorded by 1815 and taken from English;[3] French had fluoride by 1826, now replaced by fluorure.[3] The name of the element was coined in 1813 by the English chemist Humphry Davy, at the suggestion of Ampère, from fluor-spar, the mineral in which it was found, and the chemical suffix -ine.[2] Fluor, an old name for fusible minerals used as fluxes, is from Latin fluor (“a flowing, flow”), from fluō (“to flow, run, melt”).[2] An earlier English name for such compounds was fluate.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A compound of fluorine with another element: 1815, in the Annals of Philosophy, in the OED's revised entry;[3] Etymonline also dates it to 1815.[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster give 1826,[9][7][8] and Dictionary.com 1820–30.[10]

Semantic evolution

For more than a century the word was only a term of chemistry, for a compound of fluorine with another element or with an organic group, or a salt of hydrofluoric acid.[3][8][4] In the 1940s it gained a public-health sense: from 1944 fluoride also meant the fluorine salts added to water supplies or toothpaste to reduce tooth decay.[3][11] The word fluoridation had been used in mineralogy since 1904, for the taking up of fluorine by a mineral; from 1949 it meant adding fluoride to drinking water,[3][2][7] and the verb fluoridate was back-formed from it in the same year.[7]

Timeline

  • 1815 – a compound of fluorine with another element.[3][2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1826.[9][8]
  • 1944 – fluorine salts added to water supplies or toothpaste against tooth decay.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chemistry) A compound of fluorine with another element or group, especially a salt containing the anion F⁻; a salt or ester of hydrofluoric acid: Sodium fluoride dissolves readily in water.[12][8][3][11]
  2. A fluorine-containing salt added to drinking water or toothpaste to help prevent tooth decay: The town council voted to add fluoride to the water.[3][11]

Word family

  • bifluoride
  • fluoridation
  • fluoridize
  • hexafluoride
  • tetrafluoride
  • trifluoride

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins