Boronic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or containing a boron atom bonded to an organic group, as in certain acids used in chemical synthesis
2. Describing a chemical compound in which boron is linked to carbon-based groups, often used in organic reactions
3. Pertaining to organic compounds that carry boron attached to a carbon framework, important in modern laboratory chemistry

Etymology: Boronic is a plain chemical formation: it is "boron" with the adjectival suffix "-ic", meaning "containing boron atoms" in the sense used by chemists. The element boron takes its name from "borax", the mineral salt whose Arabic and Persian ancestors trace back to a word for a borate compound, and "boron" itself was coined in the early nineteenth century by combining that root with "carbon", whose ending it borrowed to mark it as a nonmetal. The suffix "-ic" is older, passing into English through Latin "-icus" and Old French "-ique", and it is what turns the element's name into a description of a molecule. Boronic acids are the compounds this adjective usually describes, and they carry a boron atom bonded to a carbon and two hydroxyl groups. The name therefore records nothing more than composition, which is typical of systematic chemical vocabulary built from element names and standard suffixes.