Benzofuran

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A bicyclic aromatic organic compound consisting of a benzene ring fused to a furan ring, containing five and six-membered rings sharing two atoms
2. An organic chemical structure in which a benzene ring is joined to a furan ring, forming a stable two-ring system with aromatic properties
3. A heterocyclic aromatic molecule made up of a benzene ring condensed with a five-membered furan ring containing one oxygen atom

Etymology: Benzofuran is a chemical compound, and its name is a plain compound built from two older chemical names. The first part, "benzo-", comes from benzoin, the resin whose name passed through Latin and French into English. The second part, "furan", comes from the Latin "furfur", meaning bran, because furan-type compounds were first obtained from furfural, a substance derived from bran. Furfural itself gets its name from that Latin root with the chemical suffix "-al", which English added to form names for aldehydes. Put together, benzofuran is simply a benzene ring fused onto a furan ring, so the name records the two structures it combines. Its history is therefore one of chemical naming rather than everyday speech: each piece was coined to describe a substance or structure, and the whole was assembled from them.

Synonyms: coumaranone