Antichlor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical compound that serves to neutralize or counteract chlorine
2. An agent that effectively mitigates the effects of chlorine in various applications
3. A substance used to neutralize chlorine in water or chemicals

Etymology: Antichlor is a compound of "anti-" and "chlor-", the latter from "chlorine", which the English chemist Humphry Davy named in 1810 from the Greek "chlōros", meaning pale green, after the gas's colour. The "anti-" prefix, from Greek "anti" meaning "against" or "opposite", was attached to it in the nineteenth century, when the word was coined for substances that counteract chlorine. The earliest such agent in practice was sodium thiosulfate, used in the bleaching trade to remove residual chlorine from cloth and paper after it had been treated with chlorine-based bleaches. The word therefore describes a job rather than a discovery: any chemical that stops chlorine from continuing to act. Its usefulness lies in the industrial setting, where chlorine bleaching would otherwise leave fabric or pulp weakened and yellowed. The term appears in textile and paper-making manuals, and its name follows the usual scientific pattern of attaching a Greek prefix to an element name.

Synonyms: dechlorinator, dechlorinating agent