nitrogen

Etymology

It is borrowed from French nitrogène,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a word coined in 1790 by the French chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal,^[2][3][7][8] formed from nitro-, from νίτρον (nítron, “sodium carbonate, natron”), the source of nitre,^[3][4][9] and the suffix -gène, from -γενής (-genḗs, “born of, produced by”).^[3][8] The name, "nitre-producing", was given because the gas was found to be a constituent of nitric acid.^[6][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The chemical element: 1791, in William Nicholson's translation of Chaptal's Elements of Chemistry, which renders the passage of 1790 where the French word first appears.^[2][10] Barnhart and Etymonline date the English word to 1794.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The gas had been produced from air in 1772 by the Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford,^[7] and an earlier English name for it was mephitic air.^[3][4] Lavoisier called it azote, a name that survived in French.^[3] From 1870 the word was also used for a nitrogen compound, especially one used as a fertilizer.^[2]

Timeline

• 1772 – the gas is first isolated, as mephitic air.^[7][3]
• 1790 – French nitrogène coined by Chaptal.^[2][3]
• 1791 – first English use.^[2][10]
• 1870 – a nitrogen compound used as a fertilizer.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A colourless, odourless, largely unreactive gaseous chemical element that makes up about 78 per cent of the atmosphere by volume and is an essential part of proteins; symbol N, atomic number 7.
2. A compound of nitrogen, especially one used as a fertilizer: Spread nitrogen on the field in early spring.

Word family

• nitrogenous
• nitrogen-fixing
• nitrogenase
• nitrogen balance
• nitrogen cycle
• nitrogen dioxide

Related words

• nitrate
• nitre
• nitric
• nitride
• nitrification
• nitrify
• nitrite
• nitro-
• nitrous
• -gen
• oxygen
• hydrogen
• azote

References

1. ^ 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster