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monoxide

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Etymology and origin of the English word monoxide

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1868 Fownes's Manual of Elementary Chemistry
Ultimate origins
Ancient Greek μόνοςFrench oxide
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English oxide
English monoxide

Pronunciation

  • /məˈnɒksʌɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English mono- + oxide,[2][3][4][5] as an international scientific term.[6] Barnhart and Klein give the shorter form of the prefix, mon-.[7][8] Mono- is from Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos, “single, alone”),[4] and oxide is from French oxide, coined in 1787 by Guyton de Morveau and Lavoisier from oxygène and acide.[4][2] The OED compares the earlier dioxide, pentoxide and tetroxide.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An oxide with one atom of oxygen in its molecule: 1868, in H. B. Jones and H. Watts's edition of Fownes's Manual of Elementary Chemistry,[2] 1868 also in Merriam-Webster.[6] Etymonline dates the word to 1840,[4] Barnhart to 1869,[7] and Dictionary.com to 1865–70.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its one chemical sense, and is best known from carbon monoxide, recorded from the same 1868 manual.[2] That gas is so called because its molecule has one carbon and one oxygen atom, against the two oxygen atoms of carbon dioxide; an older name for it was carbonic oxide gas.[4]

Timeline

  • 1840 – an oxide with one oxygen atom in each molecule.[4] The OED's first record is from 1868.[2]
  • 1868 – carbon monoxide.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chemistry) An oxide whose molecule contains a single atom of oxygen, as carbon monoxide.[9][6][2][3]

Word family

  • carbon monoxide
  • lead monoxide

References

  1. ^ 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Monoxide.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/monoxide. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·