Benzazepine

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of organic chemical compounds whose molecules contain a fused benzene and azepine ring system, used as a basis for various drugs
2. Any member of a family of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds built from a benzene ring joined to a seven-membered azepine ring
3. A group of synthetic ring-shaped organic molecules that serve as the chemical framework for certain pharmaceutical agents

Etymology: Benzazepine is a chemical coinage, built from two parts that each carry their own history. The "benz-" prefix comes from benzoin, the name of a fragrant resin, and that name has an unexpectedly long road behind it. It passed from Arabic "lubān jāwiyy" ("Javanese frankincense") into Catalan as "benjuí" and then Middle French as "benjoin," before English took it as "benzoin." Its ancestors trace back to a Semitic word for milk, perhaps because the resin was valued for its pale, milky-looking gum. The "azepine" part is a more recent technical formation. It contains "az-," from French "azote," the old name for nitrogen, which chemists coined from Greek roots meaning "not" and "life," since nitrogen does not support life. The "-epine" ending is a chemical suffix for a seven-membered ring compound, combining "hepta-" (seven, from Greek "heptá") with the "-ine" suffix that marks nitrogen-containing compounds. Put together, the word is a plain modern label, not a traditional one: "benz-" marks the benzene-based ring, and "azepine" names the seven-membered nitrogen ring it is fused to.