Azepine

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A seven-membered ring compound containing a single nitrogen atom, used as the basic structure of certain pharmaceutical drugs
2. An organic chemical whose molecules form a seven-atom ring that includes one nitrogen atom, found in various medicinal substances
3. A heterocyclic chemical structure built from a seven-membered ring with one nitrogen atom, forming the core of many drug compounds

Etymology: Azepine is a chemistry coinage, and its name is built from two pieces that were assembled deliberately. The first, "az-", comes from "azote", the French name for nitrogen, which chemists used to mark a nitrogen atom placed in a ring. "Azote" itself was coined in the late 1780s by the French chemists Lavoisier and his colleagues, from Greek "a-" (not) and "zōē" (life), because nitrogen does not support life or combustion. So the name of this element is, in effect, a statement that it cannot sustain living things. The second piece, "-epine", is the more unusual part. It joins the Greek-derived "hepta-", meaning seven, with the chemical suffix "-ine". The seven refers to the seven-membered ring that defines the compound family. Put together, the name describes a ring of seven atoms with one nitrogen among them, which is exactly what the chemistry says.