methyl

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Methyl,^[2][3][4][5] or directly borrowed from French méthyle;^{[4][6][7][8][3]} Barnhart, the American Heritage Dictionary and Collins give only the French word.^[6][7][9] Both are back-formations from the names of methylene, Methylen and méthylène.^[8][5][10] The OED finds German Methyl in Wöhler (1836), shortened from Methylen after Swedish metyl, used by Berzelius in 1835 and itself shortened from metylen after etyl (“ethyl”);^[2] the French form appears in 1839, in a translation of Berzelius.^[2] Klein too credits the term to Berzelius.^[11] The French méthylène was coined by Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas and Eugène-Melchior Péligot in 1835^[2][11][12] (1834 in Etymonline)^[4] from Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu, “wine”), related to mead, and ὕλη (húlē, “wood”), with the suffix -ène, after esprit-de-bois (“wood spirit”),^[2][11][10] because the substance was found in wood alcohol.^[4] Etymonline quotes Flood: the division of methylene into methyl and -ene, and the identification of -yl with the general suffix -yl, led to meth- being used as a combining element of its own, as in methane.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The hydrocarbon radical present in wood spirit (methanol) and its compounds: 1840, in a paper by J. Berzelius in the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine.^[2][3][4] Barnhart dates the word 1844^[6] and Dictionary.com 1835–45.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its chemical sense; it is usually found in compounds such as methyl alcohol, methanol.^[8][5] Collins also uses it for an organometallic compound in which methyl groups are bound directly to a metal atom.^[9] Hoad records the derivative methylated.^[10]

Timeline

• 1835 – méthylène coined by Dumas and Péligot.^[2][11] Swedish metyl in Berzelius.^[2][11]
• 1836 – German Methyl in Wöhler.^[2]
• 1840 – English methyl, the hydrocarbon radical CH₃.^[2][3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The univalent radical CH₃, derived from methane by removing one hydrogen atom and present in methanol and many other organic compounds; usually used as a modifier, as in methyl bromide.^[3][2][5][7]
2. An organometallic compound in which methyl groups are bound directly to a metal atom.^[9]

Word family

• methylic
• dimethyl

Related words

• methylene
• methane
• methanol
• ethyl
• mead
• amethyst
• -yl

Usage notes

The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary gives /ˈmeθ.əl/ or /ˈmeθ.ɪl/ as the general pronunciation and /ˈmiː.θaɪl/ in British English as chemists' pronunciation;^[14] Merriam-Webster likewise notes the pronunciation with a long first vowel as chiefly used by British chemists.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press