méthylène

Forms

méthylène m (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It was coined in 1834 by the chemists Dumas and Peligot, from Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu, “wine, fermented drink”) + ὕλη (húlē, “wood”), with the suffix -ène.^[2][3][4][5] The name was meant as a learned rendering of the everyday name esprit-de-bois (“wood spirit”), the liquor obtained from wood.^[2][3] Wiktionary calls it an irregular formation.^[1]

Rey notes that μέθυ (méthu) is an old Indo-European word for honey, also found in Baltic, Slavic and Celtic, while ὕλη (húlē) has no known etymology.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dumas and Peligot introduced the word in a memoir read in 1834 and printed in 1835 in the Annales de chimie et de physique, naming a radical that they had to assume in order to bring the compounds they described under one theory.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Nineteenth-century chemistry used it for a hypothetical compound of carbon and hydrogen, the supposed radical of methyl alcohol, as Littré records.^[6] Today it names the bivalent radical derived from methane by removing two hydrogen atoms.^[2][3][7]

From méthylène chemists drew méthyle (1839), with the element méthyl- and the suffix -yle.^[3] The splitting of the word into methyl and -ene also made meth- a combining element of its own in English chemical names such as methane.^[5]

The phrase bleu de méthylène (1896) names a bright blue dye and disinfectant extracted from coal tar.^[2][3] In commerce and industry méthylène has also meant, since 1903, a mixture of methyl alcohol and acetone used to denature alcohol.^[3][8] English adopted the word at once, as methylene (1835).^[2][3][5]

Timeline

• 1834 – Dumas and Peligot coin the word in a memoir read that year.^[2][3][4]
• 1835 – The memoir is printed in the Annales de chimie et de physique.^[2]
• 1835 – English borrows it as methylene.^[2][3][5]
• 1839 – Méthyle is derived from it.^[3]
• 1896 – First record of bleu de méthylène.^[2][3]
• 1903 – The industrial sense “mixture for denaturing alcohol” is recorded.^[3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) methylene, the bivalent radical CH₂ derived from méthane.^[2][7][9]
2. (industry) Impure methyl alcohol, wood spirit, or a mixture of methyl alcohol and acetone used to denature alcohol.^{[2][8][9][10]}
3. Bleu de méthylène: methylene blue, a bright blue dye with antiseptic properties.^[2][7][10]

Word family

• méthyle

Related words

• Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu)
• Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē)
• English methylene

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 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)