methanol

Etymology

It is formed from English methane + -ol, the suffix denoting an alcohol.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Merriam-Webster places it in the International Scientific Vocabulary.^[4] Etymonline instead derives it from methyl and -ol.^[8] Methane was formed after German Methan, coined by A. W. Hofmann in 1866,^[2] and methyl is from Methyl (1836), shortened from Methylen,^[2] ultimately from Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu, “wine”) and ὕλη (hū́lē, “wood”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The simplest of the aliphatic alcohols, CH₃OH: 1894, in G. M'Gowan's translation of A. Bernthsen's Text-Book of Organic Chemistry.^[2][4][9] Etymonline dates it to 1892, the year in which, it says, the international scientific community adopted the name;^[8] Dictionary.com gives 1890–95.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The name replaced older ones that are still in use: methyl alcohol and wood alcohol, from its first source, the distillation of wood.^[4][5][2] Today it is usually made synthetically, from carbon monoxide and hydrogen.^[4]

Timeline

• 1894 – the alcohol CH₃OH.^[2][4][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A colourless, volatile, flammable and poisonous liquid alcohol, CH₃OH, used as a solvent, a fuel, an antifreeze and a raw material for making formaldehyde; methyl alcohol, wood alcohol.^{[4][5][2][11]}

Related words

• methane
• methyl

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press