gas

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡæs/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dutch gas, a word coined by the Flemish chemist Jan Baptista van Helmont (1577–1644),^[2][3][4] probably an alteration of Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “empty space, chaos”),^[2][5][3] since Dutch g sounds roughly like Greek ch.^[5][4] Van Helmont was probably influenced by Paracelsus, who used kháos in an occult sense, “proper element of spirits”.^[5][2] Van Helmont wrote: “Hunc spiritum, incognitum hactenus, novo nomine gas voco” (“This vapour, hitherto unknown, I call by a new name, gas”).^[5] The sense “petrol”, American English by 1905, is a clipping of gasoline.^[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Van Helmont's occult principle supposed to be present in all bodies: 1658,^[2][6] or the 1650s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Van Helmont was the first to realize that there were gases other than air,^[4] but the word did not catch on until much later.^[4] The modern scientific sense, any substance that expands without limit, like air, began in 1779.^[2][5][6] It was then specialized to a combustible mixture used for fuel and light, coal gas, from 1794,^[5][2] an anaesthetic, nitrous oxide, from 1894,^[5][6] and poison gas in war from 1900.^[5][2] Intestinal gas is from 1882.^[5][6] Weekley wrote that the success of this artificial word is unique.^[5] Slang “empty talk” is from 1847, and “something exciting or excellent” from 1953;^[5] in Anglo-Irish gas also meant “fun, a joke”, used by Joyce in 1914.^[5] The verb meant “to supply with gas” in 1886, and “to poison with gas” from 1889, as a military attack from 1915.^[5] Gas pedal is by 1908 and gas station from 1916.^[5]

Timeline

• 1658 – an occult principle (van Helmont).^[2]
• 1779 – the modern scientific sense.^[2]
• 1794 – coal gas.^[2]
• 1847 – empty talk (slang).^[5]
• 1882 – intestinal gas.^[5]
• 1889 – verb, to poison with gas.^[5][2]
• 1894 – an anaesthetic gas.^[5]
• 1900 – poison gas.^[2]
• 1905 – petrol (US).^[5][6]
• 1916 – gas station.^[5]
• 1953 – something exciting (slang).^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A substance, like air, that has no fixed shape or volume and expands to fill any container.
2. A gas or mixture of gases burned as fuel.
3. (North America) Gasoline, petrol.
4. A gas used as an anaesthetic, or as a poison in war.
5. Gas in the stomach or intestines; flatulence.
6. (slang) Empty talk; something very enjoyable.

Verb

1. To kill or harm with poison gas.
2. (North America) To fill a car with petrol.
3. (informal) To talk idly.

Word family

• gasless
• avgas
• gas-guzzler
• gasohol
• gas oil
• gas pedal
• gas station
• gas tank

Related words

• chaos
• gasoline
• gaseous
• gasify
• gasometer

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press