ozone

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Ozon, coined in 1840 by the German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ὄζω (ózō, “to smell”),^[2][6][5][1] so called from the gas's pungent smell.^[3][7][6] Barnhart, Etymonline and the AHD take it from the verb's neuter present participle,^[7][3][8] while the OED analyses it as the verb with the German suffix -on (English -one).^[2][9] The Greek verb comes from the same Indo-European base as Latin odor, the source of odour.^[2][6] Schönbein published the name in German, French and English within the same year,^[2] and Weekley took the English word from French ozone.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bluish, sharp-smelling form of oxygen with three atoms to the molecule: 1841, in Schönbein's paper in the Reports of the British Association for 1840.^[2][11] Barnhart and Etymonline date the English word to 1840.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Ozone was long believed to have a tonic effect and to be present in fresh air, especially at the seaside.^[12][9] Hence the word came to mean fresh, invigorating air, a slang use from 1864,^[13] and figuratively something fresh or invigorating, from 1865 in Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters.^[2] The ozone layer of the stratosphere, which absorbs most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation, was named in the 1920s,^[12] and since 1975 ozone alone has also meant that layer,^[2] with compounds such as ozone-friendly and ozone hole.^[9] American slang has had in the ozone, dazed or stupefied, especially by drink or drugs, since 1971,^[2] and ozone as a street name for phencyclidine since 1979.^[13]

Timeline

• 1840 – German Ozon, coined by Schönbein.^[2][3][4]
• 1841 – the gas, in English.^[2][11]
• 1864 – slang, fresh air.^[13]
• 1865 – figuratively, something fresh or invigorating.^[2]
• 1920s – ozone layer.^[12]
• 1971 – US slang in the ozone, dazed.^[2]
• 1975 – the ozone layer.^[2][14]
• 1979 – drug slang, phencyclidine.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pale blue, poisonous form of oxygen, O₃, with a sharp smell, formed by electrical discharge in oxygen and by ultraviolet light in the upper atmosphere; a strong oxidizing agent used for bleaching and purifying water.^[15][11][2]
2. The ozone layer.^[2][14]
3. (informal) Clean, bracing air, especially at the seaside.^[15][9]
4. (US slang) in the ozone: in a dazed or drowsy state, especially from drink or drugs.^[2]

Word family

• ozonic
• ozonide
• ozoniferous
• ozonosphere
• ozonous
• ozonolysis
• ozonize
• ozonizer

Related words

• odour

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins