Azane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical substance consisting of nitrogen and hydrogen atoms bonded together, typically in the form NH3
2. A molecule made up of one nitrogen atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms, commonly used as a fertilizer and industrial chemical
3. A compound composed of one nitrogen atom with three hydrogen atoms attached, important in various chemical and biological processes

Etymology: Azane is the chemist's name for the compound of nitrogen and hydrogen that is more usually called ammonia, and its name reveals the chemistry it describes. The "-ane" ending is the standard suffix for saturated hydrocarbons and hydrides in chemical nomenclature, the same ending found in methane and ethane, so the name marks the compound as a simple hydride, a hydrogen-bearing parent structure. The first part, "azo-", comes from the Greek "a-", meaning "without", combined with "zoe", meaning "life". Chemists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries used this root for nitrogen, because it does not support combustion or breathing, and they built a family of names around it: azote was an older French-derived name for nitrogen itself, and the "azo" element appears in terms such as azide and azo compounds. Azane therefore sits in a systematic naming scheme rather than in everyday speech. It is a modern coinage, not an ancient term, and its meaning rests entirely on the chemical structure it names.

Synonyms: ammonia, nitrogen trihydride