Arsenites

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of chemical compound characterized by the presence of arsenic and typically combined with oxygen or sulfur in various forms
2. These compounds, often occurring in mineral form, serve as derivatives of arsenic and may be used in various industrial processes
3. Containing arsenic, these substances can exhibit unique properties and reactivity, depending on their specific chemical structure and composition

Etymology: "Arsenites" is the plural of "arsenite," a salt or ester of arsenous acid, formed from "arsenic" plus the chemical suffix "-ite." The suffix comes from Greek "-ites," and chemists adopted it to name salts of acids whose names end in "-ous." The base word has a longer and more tangled history. The Greeks called the yellow mineral orpiment "arsenikon," which may trace back through Syriac and Arabic to a Persian word meaning "yellow" or "gold-colored," though the exact route is debated. Greek speakers later linked the name to "arsen," meaning "male," because of the mineral's potent effects, a folk association that has no basis in the word's real origin.