oxidation

Etymology

It is borrowed from French oxidation,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} now spelled oxydation,^[2][4][7] formed from oxider (“to oxidize”), now oxyder, with the suffix -ation.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the French word to 1787 and credits it to the chemists Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau and Antoine Lavoisier;^[3] the OED dates it to 1788.^[2] The verb comes from oxide, which the same chemists coined in 1787 from the first part of oxygène (“oxygen”) and the end of acide (“acid”).^[2][3] See oxide.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Combination with oxygen, conversion into an oxide: 1789, in Robert Kerr's translation of Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to 1791.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English with Lavoisier's new chemistry, and its first meaning was the combination of a substance with oxygen.^[2][3] Chemists later widened it to the removal of hydrogen from a compound, and to the loss of an electron by an atom or molecule, the opposite of reduction.^[8][2] Compounds such as oxidation number, oxidation state and oxidation-reduction (also called redox) belong to this later use.^[8] In pottery the word also names the stage of firing in which the oxygen of the kiln burns away organic matter in the clay.^[4]

Timeline

• 1787–1788 – French oxidation.^[3][2]
• 1789 – combination with oxygen, in a translation of Lavoisier.^[2][4]
• 1791 – Etymonline's date.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process of combining with oxygen, or of turning into an oxide: Oxidation slowly turned the copper roof green.^[4][9][2]
2. In chemistry, the loss of electrons by an atom, ion or molecule, or the removal of hydrogen from a compound; the opposite of reduction.^[8][2]
3. The state or result of being oxidized.^[4]
4. In pottery, the stage of firing in which organic matter in the clay is burned away by oxygen in the kiln.^[4]

Word family

• oxidative
• oxidatively
• oxidational
• autooxidation
• autoxidation
• beta-oxidation
• photooxidation
• reoxidation

Related words

• oxidate
• oxide
• oxidize
• oxygen
• redox
• acid

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins